The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of John Marston, by John Marston This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Works of John Marston Volume 1 Author: John Marston Editor: A. H. Bullen Release Date: March 25, 2014 [EBook #45209] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF JOHN MARSTON *** Produced by David Clarke, Carol Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) The English Dramatists JOHN MARSTON VOLUME THE FIRST THE WORKS OF JOHN MARSTON EDITED BY A. H. BULLEN, B.A. IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME THE FIRST [Illustration: Printer's logo] LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. MDCCCLXXXVII _Two hundred copies of this Edition on Laid paper, medium 8vo, have been printed, viz., 120 for the English Market, and 80 for America. Each copy numbered as issued._ _No. 30_ TO AN OLD FRIEND AND FELLOW-STUDENT, _CHARLES H. FIRTH,_ These Volumes ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE EDITOR. PREFACE. Marston's Works were edited in 1856 by Mr. Halliwell (3 vols. 8vo.) for Mr. Russell Smith's _Library of Old Authors_. I yield to none in my admiration for the best and the most accurate of living Shakespearean scholars; but I am sure that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, who in his _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_ has set so singularly high a standard of excellence, would be the first to acknowledge that his edition of Marston's Works needs revision. In the present volumes I have done my best to regulate the text, which is frequently very corrupt; but I am painfully conscious that I have left plenty of work for future editors. A valuable edition of Marston's poems was published in 1879, for private circulation, by Dr. Grosart. I have availed myself freely of the results of Dr. Grosart's biographical researches; and I am indebted to his edition for the text of the _Entertainment_ in vol. iii. Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, whose recently published edition of Reginald Scot's _Discovery of Witchcraft_ met with the enthusiastic welcome that it deserved, has helped me liberally with advice and suggestions; and I have to thank Mr. P. A. Daniel, whose scholarship is as sound as it is acute, for his kindness in reading my Introduction. In deference to friendly criticism, I have prefixed to each play a brief summary of the plot. _18th March 1887._ CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PAGE PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION xi FIRST PART OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA 1 ANTONIO'S REVENGE: THE SECOND PART OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA 95 THE MALCONTENT 193 INTRODUCTION. When other poets were repeating Horace's boast, "Exegi monumentum," &c., John Marston dedicated the first fruits of his genius "To everlasting Oblivion." In much of Marston's satire there is an air of evident insincerity, but the dedicatory address at the close of _The Scourge of Villainy_ is of startling earnestness:-- "Let others pray For ever their fair poems flourish may; But as for me, hungry Oblivion, Devour me quick, accept my orison, My earnest prayers, which do importune thee, With gloomy shade of thy still empery To veil both me and my rude poesy." Those lines were printed in 1598. Six and thirty years afterwards the poet was laid in his grave, and on the grave-stone was inscribed "Oblivioni sacrum." But prayers cannot purchase oblivion; and the rugged Timon of the Elizabethan drama, who sought to shroud himself "in the uncomfortable night of nothing," will be forced from time to time to emerge from the shades and pass before the eyes of curious scholars. It was established by the genealogical researches of that acute and indefatigable antiquary, Joseph Hunter,[1] that John Marston belonged to the old Shropshire family of Marstons. The dramatist's father, John Marston, third son of Ralph Marston of Gayton (or Heyton), co. Salop, was admitted a member of the Middle Temple in 1570; married Maria, daughter of Andrew Guarsi[2] (or Guersie), an Italian surgeon who had settled in London, and had married Elizabeth Gray, daughter of a London merchant; migrated to Coventry; was lecturer of the Middle Temple in 1592. The year of the poet's birth is unknown, but it may be fixed circ. 1575, and we shall probably not be wrong in assuming that the birthplace was Coventry. For his early education Marston was doubtless indebted to the Coventry free-school. On 4th February 1591-2, "John Marston, aged 16, a gentleman's son, of co. Warwick," was matriculated at Brazennose College, Oxford (Grosart's _Introduction_, p. x.). There is not the slightest doubt that this John Marston, who was admitted Bachelor of Arts on 6th February 1593-4 as the "eldest son of an Esquire" (Wood's _Fasti_, ed. Bliss, i. 602), was the poet; and Wood went wrong in identifying our John Marston with another John Marston, or Marson, who belonged to Corpus. In the will of the elder Marston, proved in 1599, there is a curious passage which shows that the poet, contrary to his father's wishes, abandoned the profession of the law. An abstract of the will (communicated by Col. Chester) has been printed by Dr. Grosart, and is here reprinted:-- "John Marston of City of Coventry Gent dated 24 Oct. 1599 to Mary my wife, my mansion &c. in Crosse Cheepinge in Coventry and other premises for life rem^r to John my son and heirs of body rem^r to heirs of body of Raphe Marston Gent my father dec^d rem^r to right heirs of my s^d son[;] to s^d wife my interest in certain lands &c. after death of John Butler[3] my father in law and Margaret his now wife in par. Cropedy co. Oxon and others in Wardington co. Oxon rem^r to John my son to s^d wife 1/2 of plate and household stuff &c. to s^d son John my furniture &c. in my chambers in the Middle Temple my law books &c. to my s^d son _whom I hoped would have profited by them in the study of the law but man proposeth and God disposeth_ &c. to kinsman and servant Tho^s Marston 20 nobles to my poorest brother Rich^d Marston 20 nobles for him and his children all residue to Mary my wife &c. (G. Gascoigne a witness) Proved 29 Nov. 1599." In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (82 Kidd.). Wood vaguely says that the poet (the John Marston of Brazennose College) "after completing that degree [the degree of B.A.] by determination, went his way and improved his learning in other faculties." It is clear from his father's will that he found legal studies distasteful, and we may conjecture that he quickly turned from the professional career on which he had entered and devoted his attention to literature and the stage. Few biographical facts concerning Marston have come down. He married (but at what precise date we cannot determine) Mary, daughter of the Rev. William Wilkes, Chaplain to James I., and Rector of St. Martin's, co. Wilts. Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that "Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies;" a witty remark, contrasting the asperity of Marston's comedies with the blandness of his father-in-law's sermons. Marston's plays--with the exception of _The Insatiate Countess_--were published between 1602 and 1607. He seems to have definitely abandoned play-writing about the year 1607; but the date at which he entered the Church is not clearly ascertained. On 10th October 1616 he was presented to the living of Christ Church in Hampshire;[4] he compounded for the firstfruits of Christ Church on 12th February 1616-7; and he formally resigned the living (probably from ill-health) on 13th September 1631. William Sheares the publisher issued in 1633 a collective edition of Marston's plays, and in the dedicatory address to Lady Elizabeth Carey, Viscountess Falkland, speaks of the author as "in his autumn and declining age" and "far distant from this place." On 25th June 1634 Marston died in Aldermanbury parish, London. His will, dated 17th June 1634, was drawn up when he was so ill as to be compelled to make a mark instead of affixing his signature. The will[5] runs thus:-- "In the name of God Amen I John Marston of London Clarke being sicke in bodie but of perfect and sound mind and memorie doe make my last Will and Testament in manner and forme following Imprimise I give and bequeath my soule into the hands of Allmightie God my Maker and Redeemer and my bodie to be buried in Christian buriall in some convenient place where my executor hereafter named shall appointe Item I give and bequeath to James Coghill and James Boynton both of Christchurch in the County of South^{tn} the somme of fortie shillinges apeece to be paide within six mounthes after my decease Item I give and bequeath to Marie Fabian the wife of W^m Fabian of Christchurch aforesaide towards the educac'on of hir five sonnes the somme of twentie eight pound of currant money of England to be paide to hir within sixe monthes after my decease Item I give to the parrish Church of Christchurch aforesaide the somme of five poundes to be paide within sixe monthes next after my decease Item I give and bequeath to my couzin Hunt of Ashford in the countie of Saloppe the somme of twentie poundes to be paide within sixe moneths after my decease Item I give and bequeath to my cozen Griffins daughter of Kingston in the Countie of Surrey the somme of five poundes to be paide unto hir within sixe monthes after my decease Item I give to Marie Collice the daughter of my cozen Anne Collis of Chancerie Lane the somme of five poundes to be paide unto hir sixe monthes after my decease Item I give and bequeath to my cozen Richard Marston of Newe Inne in the Countie of Midd' my silver bason and ewre but my will is that my wife shall have the use of it untill it shalbe demaunded of hir by the said Richard or his attorney in that behalfe lawfullye deputed Item I give and bequeath unto George Wallie and James Walley sonnes of M^r Henry Wallie the somme of five poundes apeece to be paide to the saide Henrie for theier vse within sixe monthes after my decease Item all the rest of my goodes and cattles moveable and vnmoveable my debts and legacies and funeral expences being charged I give and bequeathe to my wel beloved wiefe Marie whome I ordaine my soule Executrixe of this my last Will and Testament And I doe hereby renounce and make voide all former Wills by me heretofore made In Witnes whereof I have herevnto putt my hand and seale the seaventeenth daie of June in the tenth yeere of the rainge [_sic_] of oure Soveraigne Lord Charles 1634." Wood tells us that he was buried beside his father "in the church belonging to the Temple in the suburb of London, under the stone which hath written on it _Oblivioni Sacrum_." Dr. Grosart prints the following entry from the Temple Church burial-register: "1634, June 26. Mr. John Marston, Minister, sometimes of the Middle Temple, who died in Aldermanbury parish: buried below the Communion Table on the Middle Temple side." The will was proved on 9th July 1634 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury by his widow, who was buried by his side on 4th July 1657. She had desired in her will,[6] dated 12th June 1657, that she should be buried "by the body of my dear husband dec^d;" and she bequeathed her "dear husband's picture" to Master Henry Wally of Stationers' Hall. Neither in Marston's will nor in his widow's is there mention of children. Marston's earliest publication was _The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image_:[7] _And Certain Satires_, which was entered in the Stationers' Registers on 27th May 1598, and issued in the same year. Another series of satires, _The Scourge of Villainy_, was published later in 1598; it had been entered in the Stationers' Registers on 8th September. A second edition of the _Scourge_, containing an additional satire (the tenth), appeared in 1599. _Pygmalion_ is written in the same metre as _Venus and Adonis_ (from which poem Marston drew his inspiration)--a metre which Lodge had handled with considerable success. A poet who would approach the subject of Pygmalion and his image ought to be gifted with tact and delicacy. In our own day Mr. Morris (in _The Earthly Paradise_) has told the old Greek story in choice and fluent narrative verse; no poet could have treated it more gracefully. Tact and delicacy were precisely the qualities in which Marston was deficient; but the versification is tolerably smooth, and the licentiousness does not call for any special reprehension. In the _Scourge of Villainy_ (sat. vi.) Marston pretends that _Pygmalion_ was written to bring contempt on the class of poems to which it belongs:-- "Hence, thou misjudging censor! know I wrote Those idle rhymes to note the odious spot And blemish that deforms the lineaments Of modern poesy's habiliments." But it would require keener observation than most readers possess to discover in _Pygmalion_ any trace of that moral motive by which the poet claimed to have been inspired. Archbishop Whitgift did not approve of its moral tone, for in 1599 he ordered it to be committed to the flames with Sir John Davies' _Epigrams_, Cutwode's _Caltha Poetarum_, and other works of a questionable character. In Cranley's _Amanda_, 1635, it is mentioned, in company with _Hero and Leander_ and _Venus and Adonis_, as part of a courtezan's library. There is not much pleasure or profit to be derived from a perusal of Marston's satires. The author deliberately adopted an uncouth and monstrous style of phraseology; his allusions are frequently quite unintelligible to modern readers, and even the wits of his contemporaries must have been sorely exercised. After a course of Marston's satires Persius is clear as crystal. In the second satire there are some lines which aptly express the reader's bewilderment: "O darkness palpable; Egypt's black night! My wit is stricken blind, hath lost his sight: My shins are broke with searching for some sense To know to what his words have reference." Our sense is deafened by the tumult of noisy verbiage "as when a madman beats upon a drum." In Marston's satires there is little of the raciness and buoyancy that we find in the elder satirists--Skelton, Roy, and William Baldwin--who dealt good swashing blows in homely vigorous English. Persius would not have been flattered by Marston's or Hall's attempts at imitation: "nec pluteum caedit nec demorsos sapit ungues" would have been his comment on the spurious pseudo-classical Elizabethan satire. Hall claimed to have been the first to introduce classical satire into England. In the prologue to the first book of _Virgidemiae_, 1597, he writes:-- "I first adventure with foolhardy might To tread the steps of perilous despight: I first adventure: follow me who list, And be the second English satirist." It matters little whether Hall's claim was well-founded or not; but it has been often pointed out that there is extant a MS. copy of Donne's satires dated 1593. Hall, who lived to be one of the glories of the English Church, in early manhood certainly did not present an example of Christian meekness and charity. He took a very low view of contemporary writers, but never had the slightest misgivings about his own abilities. It is not easy to ascertain how his quarrel with Marston arose, but it seems clear that he was the aggressor. _Pygmalion_ was published a year later than _Virgidemiae_, but it had probably been circulated in manuscript, according to the custom of the time, before it issued from the press. There can be little doubt that the ninth satire of book i. of _Virgidemiae_, is directed against Marston. The opening lines run thus:-- "Envy, ye Muses, at your thrilling mate, Cupid hath crowned a new laureat; I saw his statue gaily tired in green, As if he had some second Phoebus been; His statue trimm'd with the Venerean tree And shrined fair within your sanctuary. What! he that erst to gain the rhyming goal, The worn recital-post of capitol, Rhymed in rules of stewish ribaldry Teaching experimental bawdery, Whiles th' itching vulgar, tickled with the song, Hanged on their unready poet's tongue? Take this, ye patient Muses, and foul shame Shall wait upon your once profaned name." When _Pygmalion_ was published Hall wrote a poor epigram (see vol. iii. p. 369), which he contrived to paste in those copies of the poem "that came to the stationers at Cambridge."[8] One of the satires, entitled "Reactio,"[9] appended to _Pygmalion_, is a violent attack on Hall. In his "Defiance to Envy," prefixed to _Virgidemiae_, Hall had boasted that he could, an' that he would, hold his own with any of the poets,--even hinting that he was a match for Spenser. The "Defiance" is a well-written piece of verse, but it gave Marston an excellent opportunity, which he used to the full in "Reactio," of making a very effective attack. In the first satire of book vi. of _Virgidemiae_ Hall replies to Marston's raillery with less vigour than we should have expected. Again and again in _The Scourge of Villainy_ Marston attacks Hall; he would not let the quarrel drop, but worried his adversary with the pertinacity of a bull-dog. In 1601 a certain "W. I.," who has been doubtfully identified (by Dr. Nicholson) with a Cambridge man, William Ingram, published _The Whipping of the Satire_, which was chiefly directed against Marston (with gibes at Ben Jonson and others). There is a lengthy and spirited preface, in which Marston is taken to task after this fashion:-- "Think you that foul words can beget fair manners? If you do I will not bate you an ace of an ass, for experience gives you the lie to your face. But your affection over-rules your reason, and therefore you are as sudden of passion in all matters as an interjection and yet as defective in most cases as an heteroclite: you gathered up men's sins as though they had been strawberries, and picked away their virtues as they had been but the stalks. They shall not make me believe but that you were the devil's intelligencer, for there went not a lie abroad but it was presently entertained of your ear; and every sin kept under writing for fear lest the devil waxing almost six thousand years of age should fail in his memory and so chance to forget it." The following stanzas have a sting in them:-- "Can you seem wise to any simple men That seem'd so simple unto all the wise And fitter far to hold the plough than pen, Such incompt stuff you rudely poetise? Yet I confess there's much conceipt in it, For you have shown great store of little wit. Take me your staff and walk some half-score miles, And I'll be hang'd if in that quantity You find me out but half so many stiles As you have made within your poesy: Nay for your style there's none can you excel, You may be called John-a-Stile full well. . . . . . . . But he that mounts into the air of Fame Must have two wings, Nature and Art, to fly; And that he may soar safely with the same Must take his rise low from humility; And not with you a goose's quill to take, Thinking with that an eagle's flight to make. Your stately Muse, starched with stiff-neck'd pride, Dain'd it amongst us, most imperiously; With lavish laughter she did each deride That came within the prospect of her eye: Despising all, all her again despise, Contemn'd of foolish and condemn'd of wise." At this easy rate "W. I." ambles on; and the quiet leisurely stanzas are a relief after the fury of the _Scourge_. Modern readers will feel that Marston was not driven by "saeva indignatio" to write satire, and they will not be inclined to accept the young author of _Pygmalion_ as a sedate moralist. "W. I." puts the matter clearly: "He scourgeth villainies in young and old As boys scourge tops for sport on Lenten day." The publication of _The Whipping of the Satire_ could hardly have been agreeable to Marston, but it is highly improbable that he is to be held responsible for the poor answer to _The Whipping_, published anonymously in the same year, under the title of _The Whipper of the Satire, his Penance in a White Sheet; or the Beadle's Confutation_.[10] If I have read _The Whipper_ aright, it is the work of one of Marston's personal friends, or of some admirer who had more zeal than wit. There are some general remarks, of slight account, on the use of satire; and Marston is exhorted to persist in his task of scourging the vices of the age. It will be enough to quote two stanzas:-- "Meantime, good satire, to thy wonted train, As yet there are no lets to hinder thee: _Thy touching quill with a sweet moving strain Sings to the soul a blessed lullaby_: Thy lines beget a timorous fear in all, And that same fear deep thoughts angelical. So that the whilom lewd lascivious man Is now remote from his abhorred life, And cloathes [loathes?] the dalliance of a courtezan; And every breathing wicked soul at strife, Contending which shall first begin to mend That they may glory in a blessed end." The italicised lines give a delightfully ludicrous description of _The Scourge of Villainy_. It is abundantly clear that Marston's uncouth satires, which to-day are so difficult to read, caused much excitement at the time of their publication. Meres in _Palladis Tamia_, 1598, reckons Marston among the leading English satirists. John Weever, in his _Epigrams_, 1599, couples Marston's name with Jonson's:-- "_Ad Jo. Marston et Ben Johnson._ Marston, thy muse enharbours Horace' vein, Then some Augustus give thee Horace' merit! And thine, embuskin'd Johnson, doth retain So rich a style and wondrous gallant spirit, That if to praise your Muses I desired My Muse would muse. Such wits must be admired." The following address is from Charles Fitzgeoffrey's _Affaniae_, 1601:-- "_Ad Joannem Marstonium._ Gloria, Marstoni, satirarum proxima primae, Primaque, fas primas si numerare duas! Sin primam duplicare nefas, tu gloria saltem, Marstoni, primae proxima semper eris. Nec te poeniteat stationis, Jane: secundus, Cum duo sint tantum, est neuter at ambo pares." But the most elaborate notice that any contemporary has given of Marston's satires is to be found in _The Return from Parnassus_.[11] The passage has been often quoted, but it must find a place here:-- "What, Monsieur Kinsayder, lifting up your leg and pissing against the world? put up, man! put up, for shame! Methinks he is a ruffian in his style, Withouten bands or garters' ornament: He quaffs a cup of Frenchman's Helicon, Then roister-doister in his oily terms; Cuts, thrusts, and foins at whomsoever he meets And strews about Ram-Alley meditations. Tut, what cares he for modest close-couch'd terms Cleanly to gird our looser libertines? Give him plain naked words stripp'd from their shirts, That might become plain-dealing Aretine. Ay, there is one that backs a paper-steed, And manageth a pen-knife gallantly: Strikes his poynado at a button's breadth, Brings the great battering-ram of terms to towns,[12] And at first volly of his cannon-shot Batters the walls of the old fusty world." Under date 28th September 1599 Henslowe records in his _Diary_ (p. 156, ed. Collier) that he lent "unto Mr. Maxton, the new poete (Mr. Mastone), the sum of forty shillings" in earnest of an unnamed play. The name "Mastone" is interlined in a different hand as a correction for "Maxton;" but there can be no doubt that the "new poete," whose name the illiterate manager misspelled, was John Marston. There is no other mention of him in the _Diary_. In 1602 were published Marston's _First Part of Antonio and Mellida_ and _Antonio's Revenge_, which had been entered in the Stationers' Registers on 24th October 1601, and had been ridiculed in that year by Ben Jonson in _The Poetaster_. Considered as a work of art the two parts of _Antonio and Mellida_ cannot be rated highly. The plot is clumsy and grotesque, and the characters, from the prodigious nature of their sins and sorrows, fail to excite in us any real interest. Marston was possessed of high tragic power, but he has not done himself justice. The magnificent prologue to _Antonio's Revenge_ prepares us to expect an impressive tale of tragic woe, but the promise is not worthily redeemed. He could conceive a fine situation, and he had at his command abundance of striking imagery. But we are never sure of him: from tragic solemnity he passes to noisy rhodomontade; at one moment he gives us a passage AEschylean in its subtle picturesqueness, at another he feebly reproduces the flaccid verbosity of Seneca's tragedies. Lamb quoted in his _Specimens_ the finest scene of _Antonio and Mellida_,--the scene where the old Andrugio on the Venice marsh, overthrown by the chance of war and banished from his kingdom, gives tongue to the conflicting passions that shake his breast. That scene deserves the eloquent praise that it received from the hands of Lamb; and if Marston had been able to keep the rest of the play at that level the _First Part of Antonio and Mellida_ would rank with the masterpieces of Webster. But what is to be said of a writer who, in describing a shipwreck, gives us such lines as the following?-- "Lo! the sea grew mad, His bowels rumbling with wind-passion; Straight swarthy darkness popp'd out Phoebus' eye, And blurr'd the jocund face of bright-cheek'd day; Whilst crudled fogs mask'd even darkness' brow: Heaven bad 's good night, and the rocks groan'd At the intestine uproar of the main. Now gusty flaws strook up the very heels Of our mainmast, whilst the keen lightning shot Through the black bowels of the quaking air; Straight chops a wave, and in his sliftred paunch Down falls our ship, and there he breaks his neck; Which in an instant up was belkt again." This is hardly a fair specimen of Marston's powers, but it exhibits to perfection his besetting fault of straining his style a peg too high; of seeking to be impressive by the use of exaggerated and unnatural imagery. When he disencumbers himself of this fatal habit his verse is clear and massive. Neither Webster nor Chapman ever gave utterance to more dignified reflections than Marston puts into the mouth of the discrowned Andrugio in the noble speech beginning, "Why, man, I never was a prince till now" (vol. i., p. 64). There is nothing of bluster in that speech; there is not a word that one would wish to alter. Nor is Marston without something of that power, which Webster wielded so effectively, of touching the reader's imagination with a vague sense of dread. He felt keenly the mysteries of the natural world; the weird stillness that precedes the breaking of the dawn, and "the deep affright That pulseth in the heart of night." _Antonio and Mellida_ amply testifies that Marston possessed a strangely subtle and vivid imagination; but few are the traces of that "sanity" which Lamb declared to be an essential condition to true genius. In 1604 was published _The Malcontent_;[13] another edition, augmented by Webster, appeared in the same year. From the Induction we learn that it had been originally acted by the Children's Company at the Blackfriars; and that when the Children appropriated _The Spanish Tragedy_, in which the King's Company at the Globe had an interest, the King's Company retaliated by acting Marston's play, with Webster's additions. _The Malcontent_ has more dramatic interest than _Antonio and Mellida_; it is also more orderly and artistic. Jonson's criticism evidently had a salutary effect, for we find no such flowers of speech as "glibbery urchin," "sliftred paunch," "the fist of strenuous vengeance is clutch'd," &c. Marston has been at pains to give a more civil aspect to his "aspera Thalia." Moreover, the moralising is less tedious, and the satire more pungent than in the earlier plays. There is less of declamation and more of action. The atmosphere is not so stifling, and one can breathe with something of freedom. There are no ghosts to shout "Vindicta!" and no boys to be butchered at midnight in damp cloisters; nobody has his tongue cut out prior to being hacked to pieces. Marston has on this occasion contrived to write an impressive play without deeming it necessary to make the stage steam like a shambles. As before, the scene is laid in Italy; and again we have a vicious usurper, and a virtuous deposed duke; but the characters are more human than in the earlier plays. Mendoza, the upstart tyrant, is indeed a deeply debased villain, but he is not deformed, like Piero, beyond all recognition. Altofronto, the banished duke, who disguises himself in the character of a malcontent and settles at the usurper's court, is a more possible personage than Andrugio. The description that the malcontent gives of himself in iii. 1, and the other description of the hermit's cell in iv. 2, exemplify Marston's potent gift of presenting bold conceptions in strenuously compact language. _The Malcontent_ was dedicated by Marston in very handsome terms to Ben Jonson, and there is a complimentary allusion to Jonson in the epilogue. At this distance of time it is impossible to fully understand the relations that existed between Jonson and Marston. There seem to have been many quarrels and more than one reconciliation. During his visit to Hawthornden, Jonson told Drummond that "He had many quarrels with Marston, beat him and took his pistol from him, wrote his _Poetaster_ on him; the beginning of them were that Marston represented him in the stage in his youth given to venery."[14] The original quarrel seems to have begun about the year 1598. In the apology at the end of _The Poetaster_, Jonson writes: "Three years They did provoke me with their petulant styles On every stage: and I at last unwilling, But weary, I confess, of so much trouble, Thought I would try if shame could win upon 'em." _The Poetaster_ was produced in 1601; so these attacks on Jonson, in which Marston must have taken a leading part, began about 1598. In the address "To those that seem judicial Perusers" prefixed to _The Scourge of Villainy_, Marston undoubtedly ridicules Ben Jonson for his use of "new-minted epithets[15] (as _real_, _intrinsecate_, _Delphic_)." "Real" occurs in _Every Man out of his Humour_ (ii. 1); "intrinsecate" in _Cynthia's Revels_ (v. 2); and "Delphic" in an early poem of Jonson's. But, as _Every Man out of his Humour_ was first produced at Christmas 1599, and _Cynthia's Revels_ in 1600, these "new-minted epithets" must have been used by Jonson in some early plays that have perished. Jonson retaliated by attacking Marston in _Every Man out of his Humour_, and _Cynthia's Revels_. In the former play (iii. 1) he introduces two characters, Clove and Orange, who are expressly described as "mere strangers to the whole scope of our play." They are on the stage only for a few minutes. Clove is represented as a pretender to learning: "he will sit you a whole afternoon sometimes in a bookseller's shop, reading the Greek, Italian, and Spanish, when he understands not a word of either." Orange is a mere simpleton who can say nothing but "O Lord, sir," and "It pleases you to say so, sir." In the "characters of the persons" (prefixed to the play) we are told that this "inseparable case of coxcombs ... being well flattered" will "lend money and repent when they have done. Their glory is to invite players and make suppers." Dr. Brinsley Nicholson suggests that Orange was intended as a caricature of Dekker, and that Clove stands for Marston. This view is, doubtless, partly correct, but we must not insist on it too strongly. Dekker--whatever may be said of Marston--had no money to lend, and would rather have expected to sup at the players' expense than to be made the shot-clog of the feast: again and again in _The Poetaster_ he is ridiculed on the score of poverty. It is undeniable that Jonson, to raise a laugh against Marston, puts into Clove's mouth grotesque words culled from _The Scourge of Villainy_. "Monsieur Orange," whispers Clove to his companion, as they are walking in the middle aisle of Paul's, "yon gallants observe us; prithee let's talk fustian a little and gull them; make them believe we are great scholars." Presently we have the passage containing the Marstonian words (which I have printed in italics):-- "Now, sirs, whereas the ingenuity of the time and the soul's _synderisis_ are but _embryons_ in nature, added to the _paunch of Esquiline_,[16] and the intervallum of the _zodiac_, besides the _ecliptic line_ being optic and not mental, but by the contemplative and theoric part thereof doth _demonstrate_ to us the vegetable circumference and the ventosity of the _tropics_, and whereas our _intellectual_, or _mincing capreal_ (according to the metaphysics) as you may read in Plato's _Histriomastix_.[17] You conceive me, sir?" In the first scene of the second act, Puntarvolo addresses Carlo Buffone as "thou _Grand Scourge_, or Second Untruss of the time," in allusion to Marston's _Scourge of Villainy_. _Cynthia's Revels_ was produced in 1600 and printed in 1601. In this play, Anaides and Hedon are represented as being jealous of Crites, and as seeking by underhand means to bring him into discredit. It is certain that Jonson was glancing particularly at Marston and Dekker. In the second scene of the third act, Crites, defending himself against his two traducers, observes:-- "If good Chrestus, Euthus, or Phronimus, had spoke the words, They would have moved me, and I should have call'd My thoughts and actions to a strict account Upon the hearing; but when I remember 'Tis Hedon and Anaides, alas, then I think but what they are, and am not stirr'd. The one a light voluptuous reveller, The other a strange arrogating puff, Both impudent and arrogant enough; That talk as they are wont, not as I merit; Traduce by custom, as most dogs do bark; Do nothing out of judgment, but disease; Speak ill because they never could speak well: And who'd be angry with this race of creatures?" Dekker in _Satiromastix_[18] puts four of these lines ("I think but what they are ... arrogant enough") into the mouth of Horace (Jonson), plainly assuming that the abuse was intended for Marston and himself. Marston, too, in _What You Will_ (p. xlviii.), fastens on this speech of Crites and uses it as a weapon against Jonson. _Cynthia's Revels_ was quickly followed by _The Poetaster_, which was produced in 1601 by the Children of the Queen's Chapel. Hitherto, Jonson had merely skirmished with his adversaries; in _The Poetaster_ he assails them might and main with all the artillery of invective. Marston is ridiculed as Crispinus, and Dekker as Demetrius Fannius. Crispinus is represented as a coarse-minded, ill-conditioned fellow, albeit of gentle parentage, who, like the bore encountered by Horace in the Via Sacra, is prepared to adopt the meanest stratagems in order to gain admittance to the society of courtiers and wits. He plots with the shifty out-at-elbows Demetrius (a witless "dresser of plays about the town here," to wit, Thomas Dekker), and a huffing Captain Tucca, to disgrace Horace (Ben Jonson). But the attempt results in a ludicrous failure; Crispinus and Demetrius are arraigned at a session of the poets, and, after receiving a severe rebuke for their calumnies, are contemptuously dismissed on taking oath for their future good behaviours. In court a dose of hellebore is administered to Crispinus, who thereupon proceeds to vomit up gobbets of Marston's fustian vocabulary. When the physic has worked its effect Virgil gives Crispinus such advice as Lycinus gave to Lexiphanes in Lucian's dialogue; bidding him form his style on classical models and not "hunt for wild outlandish terms To stuff out a peculiar dialect." _The Poetaster_ was entered in the Stationers' Register on 21st December 1601, and _Satiromastix_ had already been entered on the 11th of the preceding month. The title-page of _Satiromastix_ bears only Dekker's name, and to Dekker the play is attributed in the Stationers' Register. It was doubtless with Marston's approval that Dekker took up the cudgels against the truculent Ben, but there is no evidence to show that Marston had any share in the authorship of _Satiromastix_. It is not necessary to deal here with Dekker's spirited rejoinder, but there is one difficult passage, put into the mouth of Horace, to which passing attention must be called:-- "As for Crispinus, that Crispin-ass and Fannius his play-dresser, who (to make the Muses believe their subjests' [_sic_] ears were starved and that there was a dearth of poesy) cut an innocent Moor i'th middle, to serve him in twice, and when he had done made Poules' work of it; as for these twins, these poet-apes, Their mimic tricks shall serve With mirth to feast our muse whilst their own starve." (_Works_, 1873, i. 212.) The meaning of this obscure passage seems to be that Marston and Dekker wrote in conjunction a play which had a Moor for its leading character; that the writers' barren invention prompted them to treat the story again in a Second Part; and that the two parts, when they had served their time upon the stage, were published in Paul's Churchyard. At least that is the only intelligible explanation that I can give to the words; but I am altogether unable to fix on any extant play, in which a Moor figures, that could be attributed to Marston and Dekker. From Henslowe's _Diary_ we know that Dekker was concerned in the authorship of a play called _The Spanish Moor's Tragedy_ (which has been doubtfully identified with _Lust's Dominion_, printed in 1657 as a work of Marlowe's); but Dekker's coadjutors in that play were William Haughton and John Day. It is curious to note that in the very year (1601) when the quarrel between Marston and Jonson reached a climax, the two enemies are contributing poems to the _Divers Poetical Essays_ appended to Robert Chester's tedious and obscure _Love's Martyr_. The other contributors were Shakespeare and Chapman; Marston's verses follow Shakespeare's _Phoenix and Turtle_. In 1604, as we have noticed, Marston dedicated his _Malcontent_ to Jonson in very cordial terms; and in 1605 he prefixed some complimentary verses to _Sejanus_. In 1605 was published the comedy of _The Dutch Courtezan_, which had been acted by the Children's Company at the Blackfriars. There is more of life and movement in this play than in any other of Marston's productions. The character of the passionate and implacable courtesan, Franceschina, is conceived with masterly ability. Few figures in the Elizabethan drama are more striking than this fair vengeful fiend, who is as playful and pitiless as a tigress; whose caresses are sweet as honey and poisonous as aconite. All the characters are drawn with skill and spirit. Young Freevill is a typical Elizabethan gallant, very frank in his utterances, and not burthened with an excess of modesty. Malheureux, his moody friend, is noted for his strictness of life, but a glance from Franceschina scatters his virtuous resolutions, and he is ready at the temptress' bidding to kill his friend in order to satisfy his passion. The innocent shamefaced Beatrice, affianced to young Freevill, is drawn with more tenderness than Marston usually shows; and her gay prattling sister Crispinella recalls (_longo intervallo_) another more famous Beatrice. Cockledemoy, the droll and nimble trickster, who at every turn dexterously cozens Master Mulligrub, the vintner, affords abundance of amusement; but his plain speaking shocks the sensitively chaste ears of Mary Faugh, the old bawd. Antony Nixon, in _The Black Year_, 1606, speaks of the play as "corrupting English conditions";[19] but Nixon's protest went for little. In December 1613 _The Dutch Courtezan_ was acted at Court (Cunningham's _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels_, p. xliv.). Having received some alterations at the hands of Betterton, it was revived in 1680 under the title of _The Revenge, or A Match in Newgate_. A singularly fresh and delightful study of city-life is the comedy of _Eastward Ho_, published in 1605. Three dramatists combined to produce this genial masterpiece--Chapman, Jonson, and Marston. It seems to have been written shortly after James' accession, when the hungry Scots were swarming southwards in quest of preferment. Englishmen were justly indignant at the favours bestowed by James on these Scotch adventurers, and a passage in _Eastward Ho_ stated the grievance very plainly. "You shall live freely there" [_i.e._, in Virginia], says Seagull, "without sergeants, or courtiers, or lawyers, or intelligencers, only a _few_ industrious Scots, perhaps, who, indeed, are dispersed over the face of the whole earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England, when they are out on't, in the world, than they are. And for my part, I would a hundred thousand of 'hem were there, for we are all one countrymen now, ye know; and we should find ten times more comfort of them there than we do here." At the instance of Sir James Graham, one of James' newly-created knights, the playwrights were committed to prison[20] for their abuse of the Scots, and the report went that their ears were to be cut and their noses slit. Ben Jonson told Drummond that he had not contributed the objectionable matter, and that he voluntarily imprisoned himself with Chapman and Marston, who "had written it amongst them." After his release from prison Jonson gave a banquet to "all his friends," Camden and Selden being among the guests. In the middle of the banquet his old mother drank to him and produced a paper containing "lusty strong poison," which she had intended, if the sentence had been confirmed, to take to the prison and mix in his drink; and she declared--to show "that she was no churl"--that "she minded first to have drunk of it herself." The passage about the Scots is found only in some copies of the 4tos; in others it was expunged. Scotch pride seems to have been easily wounded. On 15th April, 1598, George Nicolson, the English agent at the Scotch Court, writing from Edinburgh to Lord Burghley, stated that "it is regretted that the Comedians of London should scorn the king and the people of this land in their play; and it is wished that the matter be speedily amended, lest the king and the country be stirred to anger" (_Cal. of State Papers, Scotland_, ii. 749). Certainly the reflections in _Eastward Ho_ have somewhat more of bitterness than banter; but one would have thought that the favoured Scots about the Court would be content to let the matter pass. Sir James Murray was the person who acted as _delator_, and it is not improbable that he found in the play some uncomplimentary allusions to himself, in addition to the sweeping satire on his countrymen. In the first scene of the fourth act there is a curious passage which has no point unless we suppose that it is directed against some particular courtier: "_1st Gent._ I ken the man weel; he's one of my thirty pound knights. "_2d Gent._ No, no, this is he that stole his knighthood o' the grand day for four pound given to a page; all the money in's purse, I wot well." Satirical references to King James' knights, the men who purchased knighthood from the king, are as common as blackberries; but in the present passage there must be a covert allusion to some person who procured the honour by an unworthy artifice, and I suspect that the allusion is to Sir James Murray. It is surprising that, when the reflections on the Scots were expunged, the passage in iv. 1 was allowed to stand; for, whether Sir James Murray was or was not personally ridiculed, the mimicry of James' Scotch accent is unmistakeable. Perhaps the king joined in the laugh against himself, when the play was acted before him by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants at Whitehall on 25th January 1613-4 (Cunningham's _Extracts from the Account of the Revels_, p. xliv.). Of the merits of _Eastward Ho_ it would be difficult to speak too highly. To any who are in need of a pill to purge melancholy this racy old comedy may be safely commended. Few readers, after once making his acquaintance, will forget Master Touchstone, the honest shrewd old goldsmith, rough of speech at times but ever gentle at heart, thrifty to outward show but bountiful as the sun in May: he lives in our affections with Orlando Friscobaldo and Simon Eyre. Quicksilver, the rowdy prentice, dazed from last night's debauch, reciting in a thick voice stale scraps of Jeronymo as he reels about Master Touchstone's shop, heedless of the maxims of temperance which frown in print from the walls; Golding, the well-conducted prentice, the apple of his master's eye, armed at all points with virtue and sobriety; Gertrude, the goldsmith's extravagant daughter, with her magnificent visions of coaches, and castles, and cherries at an angel a pound; Mildred, her sister, simple and dutiful; Mistress Touchstone, who has been infected with Gertrude's vanity, but quickly learns penitence in the school of necessity; Sir Petronel Flash, the shifty knight, eager to escape from creditors and serjeants to the new-found land of Virginia; Security, the blood-sucker and egregious gull:--all these characters, and the list is not exhausted, stand limned in all the warmth of life. Mr. Swinburne, in his masterly essay on Chapman, says with truth that "in no play of the time do we get such a true taste of the old city life so often turned to mere ridicule by playwrights of less good humour, or feel about us such a familiar air of ancient London as blows through every scene." It is very certain that Marston could never have written single-handed so rich and genial a play. In all Marston's comedies there is a strong alloy of bitterness; we are never allowed to rise from the comic feast with a pleasant taste in the mouth. What precise share Marston had in _Eastward Ho_ it would be difficult to determine with any approach to certainty. In the very first scene (vol. iii. p. 8) we come across a passage which is distinctly in Marston's manner:-- "I am entertained among gallants, true; they call me cousin Frank, right; I lend them monies, good; they spend it well." Compare a passage of _The Fawn_ (vol. ii. p. 181):-- "His brother your husband, right; he cuckold his eldest brother, true; he get her with child, just." But in the same opening scene there are equally unmistakable signs of Jonson's presence. Touchstone says of Golding:--"He is a gentleman, though my prentice ...; well friended, _well parted_." The curious expression "_well parted_" will be at once recognised as Jonsonian by the vigilant reader, who will remember how Macilente, in "The Characters of the Persons" prefixed to _Every Man out of his Humour_,[21] is described as "A man _well parted_, a sufficient scholar," &c. Jonson and Marston worked on the first scene together; and it seems to me that throughout the first two acts we have the mixed work of these two writers. In the second scene of the third act, as Mr. Swinburne notices, Chapman's hand is clearly seen in the quaint allusion to "the ship of famous Draco." Quicksilver's moralising, in iv. 1, after he has scrambled ashore at Wapping on the night of the drunken shipwreck, is again in Chapman's manner; but his elaborate devices for blanching copper and sweating angels (later in the same scene) must, without the shadow of a doubt, be ascribed to the invention of the author of _The Alchemist_. It would be of doubtful advantage to pursue the inquiry at length. _Eastward Ho_ was revived at Drury Lane on Lord Mayor's day 1751, under the title of _The Prentices_ (n. d. 12mo), and again in 1775 under the title of _Old City Manners_. Hogarth is said to have drawn from _Eastward Ho_ the plan of his prints _The Industrious and Idle Prentices_. Nahum Tate's farce _Cuckold's Haven_, published in 1685, is drawn partly from _Eastward Ho_ and partly from _The Devil is an Ass_. _Parasitaster, or the Fawn_, published in 1606, takes us again to Italy, and once more we have to listen to a satirical exposure of the courtiers' vices and follies. In spite of occasional tediousness the play is interesting. Dulcimel, Gonzago's witty daughter, who gulls her self-conceited old father by a pretended discovery of Tiberio's love for her, and succeeds by her blandishments in converting the young misogynist into a perfervid wooer, is a delightfully attractive heroine. The stratagem employed by Dulcimel is of ancient date: it is found in Terence's _Adelphi_, Boccaccio's _Decameron_ (third tale of the third day), and Moliere's _L'Ecole des Maris_. I am half inclined to suspect that Marston was slily glancing at the "wise fool" King James in the person of the silly and pedantic Gonzago; and it is probable that some social scandals of the time afforded material for the description of the intrigues of Gonzago's courtiers. Granuffo, who gains a reputation for wisdom by never opening his mouth, might possibly be made an amusing character by an actor skilled in facial contortions; but the humour of the thing is not very apparent in print. Signior No in the _Noble Spanish Soldier_ (attributed to Samuel Rowley, though the play may properly belong to Dekker), and Littleword in Nabbes' _Covent Garden_, are somewhat similar characters. The address _To the Equal Reader_, prefixed to _Parasitaster_, is excellently written, and exhibits Marston in a very pleasant light. "For mine own interest for once," he writes, with a frankness which is not without a touch of pathos, "let this be printed,--that of men of my own addiction I love most, pity some, hate none; for let me truly say it, I once only loved myself, for loving them, and surely I shall ever rest so constant to my first affection, that let their ungentle combinings, discourteous whisperings, never so treacherously labour to undermine my unfenced reputation, I shall (as long as I have being) love the least of their graces and only pity the greatest of their vices." A candid and creditable avowal, but, alas, "words is wind and wind is mutable." In the second edition there follows a briefer address, in which the writer promises to "present a tragedy which shall boldly abide the most curious perusal;" and from a marginal note we learn that the tragedy of _Sophonisba_, published in 1606, was the work which was so boldly to challenge criticism. It is to be feared that this cherished offspring of Marston's imagination will not be regarded with affection by many readers. For hideous blood-curdling realism the description of the witch Erictho and her cave is, I venture to think, without a parallel in literature. Tough as whipcord must have been the nerves of an audience which could listen patiently to the recital of Erictho's atrocities. If there were any women of delicate health among the audience, a repetition of the mishaps connected with the performance of the _Eumenides_ must surely have been unavoidable. Regarded, however, as a whole, the play is not impressive. Sophonisba is a fearless and magnanimous heroine, but her temper is too masculine; she talks too much and too bluntly, and is too fond of striking an attitude. Syphax, the villain of the play, is so prodigiously brutal as to appear perfectly grotesque; and the hero Massinissa bores us by his trite moral reflections. Marston strove to produce a stately tragedy, and was under the impression that his efforts had been crowned with success; but candid readers will judge the performance to be stiff and crude, wanting in energy and dramatic movement, too rhetorical, "climbing to the height of Seneca his style." In the prefatory address he has a hit at _Sejanus_ (to which in the previous year he had contributed a copy of eulogistic verses), informing us that "to transcribe authors, quote authorities, and translate Latin prose orations into English blank verse, hath, in this subject, been the least aim of my studies." But _Sejanus_ has certainly not less of dramatic interest than _Sophonisba_, and in other respects it is far superior. In 1607 was published the comedy of _What You Will_ (written, I suspect, shortly after the appearance of _Cynthia's Revels_), which is largely indebted for its plot to Plautus's _Amphitruo_. In the Induction, Marston again has his fling at Ben Jonson. Philomusus' heated denunciation of censorious critics, "Believe it, Doricus, his spirit Is higher blooded than to quake and pant At the report of Scoff's artillery," &c., was evidently written in derisive mimicry of Jonson's scornful addresses to the audience; and Doricus' remonstrance, "Now out upon't, I wonder what tight brain Wrung in this custom to maintain contempt 'Gainst common censure," &c., was unquestionably intended as a stiff rebuke to Jonson's towering arrogance. But these strokes of personal satire are not confined to the Induction. Quadratus' scathing ridicule of Lampatho Doria, in the first scene of the second act, was certainly aimed at some adversary of Marston's; and there can be little doubt that this adversary was Ben Jonson. Lampatho is described in the following terms by his admirer Simplicius Faber:-- "Monsieur Laverdure, do you see that gentleman? He goes but in black satin, as you see, but, by Helicon! he hath a cloth of tissue wit. He breaks a jest;[22] ha, he'll rail against the court till the gallants--O God! he is very nectar: if you but sip of his love, you were immortal." At first Lampatho speaks the language of an affected gallant; it is nothing but "protest" with him. Quadratus is disgusted with him:-- "A fusty cask Devote to mouldy customs of hoary eld." After listening to much abuse, Lampatho turns on his assailant:-- "So Phoebus warm my brain, I'll rhyme thee dead. Look for the satire: if all the sour juice Of a tart brain can souse thy estimate, I'll pickle thee." The threat only irritates Quadratus the more:-- "Why, you Don Kinsayder! Thou canker-eaten rusty cur, thou snaffle To freer spirits! Think'st thou a libertine, an ungyved breast, Scorns not the shackles of thy envious clogs? You will traduce us unto public scorn?" Curious that Marston should apply his own _nom de plume_ "Kinsayder" to the adversary whom he is bullying! In the _Scourge of Villainy_ he sneered at his own poem _Pygmalion_, and here he is referring contemptuously to his own achievements in satire. A man who openly ridicules himself blunts the edge of an enemy's sarcasm. We have seen (p. xxxiii.) that Crites' bitter abuse of Anaides and Hedon (_i.e._, Marston and Dekker), in _Cynthia's Revels_, was flung back in Jonson's face by Dekker. Marston puts into the mouth of Quadratus a speech, modelled closely on those lines of Crites:-- "_Lam._ O sir, you are so square, you scorn reproof." "_Qua._ No, sir; should discreet Mastigophorus, Or the dear spirit acute Canaidus (That Aretine, that most of me beloved, Who in the rich esteem I prize his soul, I term myself); should these once menace me, Or curb my humour with well-govern'd check, I should with most industrious regard, Observe, abstain, and curb my skipping lightness; But when an arrogant, odd, impudent, A blushless forehead, only out of sense Of his own wants, bawls in malignant questing At others' means of waving gallantry,-- Pight foutra!" Who "discreet Mastigophorus" and "acute Canaidus" were it would be useless to conjecture. But it is not to be doubted that Quadratus' abuse of Lampatho was levelled at Ben Jonson; and that Marston was avenging himself in this way for the insults showered upon him by Jonson. In iv. 1, Quadratus sneers at Lampatho's verse. Lampatho threatens to be revenged. "How, prithee?" says Quadratus; "in a play? Come, come, be sociable." The tragedy of _The Insatiate Countess_ was published in 1613, with Marston's name on the title-page. In the Duke of Devonshire's library there is a copy,[23] dated 1616, with no name on the title-page. The play was reprinted in 1631, and Marston's name is found on the title-page of most copies of that edition; but the Duke of Devonshire possesses a copy,[24] in which the author's name is given as William Barksteed. In the collected edition of Marston's plays, 1633, _The Insatiate Countess_ is not included. It is therefore clear that Marston's authorship is not established by external evidence. When we come to examine the play itself, which has unfortunately descended in a most corrupt state, the difficulty is not removed. Two picturesque lines at the close of the last scene, "Night, like a masque, is enter'd heaven's great hall, With thousand torches ushering the way," are found verbatim in Barksteed's poem _Myrrha_. We know little of Barksteed, but it is probable that he is to be identified with the William Barksted, or Backsted, who was one of Prince Henry's players in August 1611 (Collier's _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_, p. 98), and belonged to the company of the Prince Palatine's players in March 1615-6 (_ibid._, p. 126). He is the author of two poems,[25] which display some graceful fancy (though the subject of the first is ill-chosen),--_Myrrha the Mother of Adonis_, 1607, and _Hiren and the Fair Greek_, 1611. As we read _The Insatiate Countess_ we cannot fail to notice passages containing a richness of fancy, and a musical fluency of expression, to which Marston's undoubted plays afford no parallel. The italicised lines are certainly not in Marston's vein:-- "Like to the lion when he hears the sound _Of Dian's bowstring in some shady wood_, I should have couched my lowly limb on earth _And held my silence a proud sacrifice_." "Others, compared to her, show like faint stars _To the full moon of wonder in her face_." Again: the play contains an unusually large number of imitations of Shakespearean passages. In fact I know no play of this early date in which Shakespeare is so persistently imitated or plagiarised. Again and again we find images and expressions borrowed more or less closely from _Hamlet_. Shakespeare's historical plays, too, were laid under contribution. In the very first scene we have these lines:-- "Slave, I will fight with thee at any odds; Or name an instrument fit for destruction, That e'er was made to make away a man, I'll meet thee on the ridges of the Alps, Or some inhospitable wilderness." A very cool piece of plagiarism from _Richard II_. (i. 1):-- "Which to maintain I would allow him odds And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps Or any other ground inhabitable." In the lines, "The ghosts of misers that imprison'd gold Within _the harmless bowels of the earth_," the italicised words were unquestionably suggested by a passage of Hotspur's famous speech in _Henry IV._, i. 2,-- "That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd Out of _the bowels of the harmless earth_." When Don Sago in iv. 3 exclaims-- "A hundred times in life a coward dies," we are immediately reminded of Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_ (ii. 2), "Cowards die many times before their death;" and Sago's lament in v. 1, "Although ... the waves of all the Northern sea Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, Yet the sanguinolent stain would extant be," decidedly smacks of _Macbeth_. Occasionally, it is true, Marston does not scruple to borrow from Shakespeare, but in none of his plays are the Shakespearean echoes so clear and frequent as in _The Insatiate Countess_. The text, as I have said, is extremely corrupt, and the confusion among the _dramatis personae_ is perplexing to the last degree (see note, vol. iii. p. 154). I suspect that Marston, on entering the church, left this tragedy in a fragmentary state, and that it was completed by the actor Barksteed. The whole interest centres in the beautiful and sinful Isabella, whose wayward glances, as she moves in splendour, fascinate all beholders; who is indeed a "glorious devil" without shame or pity, boundless and insatiable as the sea in the enormity of her caprices. In addition to his plays, his poem of _Pygmalion_, and his satires, Marston wrote a Latin pageant on the occasion of the visit paid by the King of Denmark to James I. in 1606, and an entertainment, which is not without elegance, in honour of a visit paid by the Dowager Countess of Derby to her son-in-law and daughter, Lord and Lady Huntingdon, at Ashby. I strongly doubt whether _The Mountebank's Masque_, performed at Court in February 1616-17 (when Marston was attending to his clerical duties in Hampshire), has been correctly assigned to Marston. There are two anonymous plays[26] in which Marston's hand is plainly discernible,--_Histriomastix_, published in 1610, and _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, published in 1616. It has been mentioned (see note, p. xxxii.) that Jonson in _Every Man out of his Humour_ puts into Clove's mouth, with the object of ridiculing Marston, words and expressions found in _Histriomastix_ (coupling them with flowers of speech culled from _The Scourge of Villainy_), and even mentions the play by name--"as you may read in Plato's _Histriomastix_." Only in a few scenes of _Histriomastix_ can Marston's hand be detected. It is a poor semi-allegorical play, a clumsy piece of patchwork. Marston's additions must have been made before Christmas 1599 (when _Every Man out of his Humour_ was produced), on the occasion of some revival. The following lines, which occur early in the second act, seem to refer to Ben Jonson:-- "How, you translating scholar? You can make A stabbing satire or an epigram, And think you carry just Rhamnusia's whip To lash the patient! go, get you clothes: Our free-born blood such apprehension loathes." _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, an indifferent comedy, which appears to have been written about the year 1600,[27] bears the clearest traces of Marston's early style. All the monstrous phraseology of _The Scourge of Villainy_ and _Antonio and Mellida_ is seen here in perfection. When Jonson in _The Poetaster_ (v. 1) ridiculed Marston's absurd vocabulary, he selected, _inter alia_, for castigation, some expressions which occur only in _Jack Drum_, and are not found (in so closely parallel a form) in the works published under Marston's name: clear proof that the authorship of this play is to be ascribed, at least in part if not entirely, to Marston. In act iii. of _Jack Drum_ we have-- "Crack not the sinews of my patience," which is ridiculed in _The Poetaster_-- "As if his organons of sense would crack The sinews of my patience." In act ii. are these ridiculous lines-- "Let clumsy chilblain'd gouty wits Bung up their chief contents within the hoops Of a stuff'd dry-fat;" so in _The Poetaster_-- "Upon that puft-up lump of barmy froth, Or clumsy chilblain'd judgment." In act iv. Planet's reflections on the arrogant Old Brabant are clearly directed against Jonson. Collier in his _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_ (p. 154) printed a letter of Marston to Henslowe; but, as "the whole letter is manifestly a forgery, having been first traced in pencil, the marks of which are in places still visible" (Warner's _Catalogue of Dulwich Manuscripts and Muniments_, p. 49), this relic is of no interest. Another letter, addressed to Lord Kimbolton by a "John Marston,"[28] is printed in Collier's _Shakespeare_[29] (i. 179, ed. 1858); but as it was written in 1641, the writer could not have been the dramatist, who died in 1634. Among the additional MSS. (14,824-6) in the British Museum is a poem entitled _The New Metamorphosis, or a Feast of Fancy or Poetical Legends ... Written by J. M., Gent._, 1600, which has been, not very wisely, ascribed to Marston. I must confess that I have only a superficial acquaintance with this poem; but, as the work fills nearly nine hundred closely-packed pages, I trust that my confession will not be severely criticised. After the title-page is a leaf containing the arguments of books i.-vi.; then comes a new title-page _An Iliad of Metamorphosis or the Arraignment of Vice_, followed by a dialogue between Cupid and Momus. Six lines headed "The Author to his Book" follow the dialogue, and then comes "The Epistle Dedicatory," consisting of a couple of lines-- "To Momus, that same ever-carping mate, And unto Cupid I this dedicate." After the commendably brief epistle come two lines which inform us that-- "My name is French, to tell you in a word; Yet came not in with conquering William's sword." (Marston's name was certainly not French; it was a good old Shropshire name.) The prologue begins thus:-- "Upon the public stage to Albion's eye I here present my new-born poesy, Not with vain-glory puft to make it known, Nor Indian-like with feathers not mine own To deck myself, as many use to do; To filching lines I am a deadly foe," &c. Presently the poet indulges in his invocation:-- "Matilda fair, guide you my wand'ring quill!" Having turned some thirty thousand verses off the reel, "J. M., Gent." abruptly concludes, with the remark,-- "My leave I here of poetry do take, For I have writ until my hand doth ache." There is a fine field for an editor in _The New Metamorphosis_; virgin soil, I warrant. Manningham in his _Diary_, under date 21st November 1602, has been at the pains to record a _bon mot_ of Marston:--"Jo. Marstone, the last Christmas, when he daunct with Alderman Mores wives daughter, a Spaniard borne, fell into a strange commendation of hir witt and beauty. When he had done she thought to pay him home, and told him, she _thought_ he was a poet. 'Tis true, said he, for poets feigne and lye, and soe did I, when I commended your beauty, for you are exceeding foule." Not a very witty saying, and not very polite. In 1633, William Sheares the publisher issued, in 1 vol. sm. 8vo, _The Workes_[30] _of Mr. John Marston, being Tragedies and Comedies collected into one volume_ containing the two parts of _Antonio and Mellida_, _Sophonisba_, _What You Will_, _The Fawn_, and _The Dutch Courtezan_. The following dedicatory epistle to Viscountess Falkland, in which the publisher insists on the modesty (save the mark!) of Marston's Muse, is found in some copies:-- "TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THE LADY ELIZABETH CAREY, VISCOUNTESS FALKLAND. "Many opprobies and aspersions have not long since been cast upon Plays in general, and it were requisite and expedient that they were vindicated from them; but, I refer that task to those whose leisure is greater, and learning more transcendent. Yet, for my part, I cannot perceive wherein they should appear so vile and abominable, that they should be so vehemently inveighed against. Is it because they are PLAYS? The name, it seems, somewhat offends them; whereas, if they were styled WORKS, they might have their approbation also. I hope that I have now somewhat pacified that precise sect, by reducing all our Author's several Plays into one volume, and so styled them THE WORKS OF MR. JOHN MARSTON, who was not inferior unto any in this kind of writing, in those days when these were penned; and, I am persuaded, equal unto the best poets of our times. If the lines be not answerable to my encomium of him, yet herein bear with him, because they were his JUVENILIA and youthful recreations. Howsoever, he is free from all obscene speeches, which is the chief cause that makes Plays to be so odious unto most men. He abhors such writers, and their works; and hath professed himself an enemy to all such as stuff their scenes with ribaldry, and lard their lines with scurrilous taunts and jests; so that, whatsoever, even in the spring of his years, he hath presented upon the private and public theatre, now, in his autumn and declining age, he need not be ashamed of. And, were it not that he is so far distant from this place, he would have been more careful in revising the former impressions, and more circumspect about this, than I can. In his absence, Noble Lady, I have been emboldened to present these WORKS unto your Honour's view; and the rather, because your Honour is well acquainted with the Muses. In brief, Fame hath given out that your Honour is the mirror of your sex, the admiration, not only of this island, but of all adjacent countries and dominions, which are acquainted with your rare virtues and endowments. If your Honour shall vouchsafe to accept this work, I, with my book, am ready pressed and bound to be "Your truly devoted, "WILLIAM SHEARES." Ben Jonson's copy of the 1633 edition of Marston's plays is preserved in the Dyce Library at South Kensington. Marston's literary career barely covers a space of ten years: his satires were published in 1598, and he seems to have entered the Church, and to have abandoned the writing of plays, about the year 1607. It is hard to picture Marston as a preacher of the Gospel of Glad Tidings. Were we to judge him by his writings we should say that he was a scornful spirit, at strife with himself and with the world; a man convinced of the hollowness of present life, and yet not looking forward hopefully to any future sphere of activity; only anxious to drop into the jaws of that oblivion which he invoked in his verse and courted even on his gravestone. There was another, a greater than Marston, who began by writing satires and ended by writing sermons. Marston's sermons have perished, but the sermons of John Donne,[31] Dean of St. Paul's, are imperishable. At the thought of that oblivion for which Marston hungered the soul of Donne turned sick. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Fearful indeed; but "_to fall out of the hands of the living God_," said Donne in a sermon preached before the Earl of Carlisle, "is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination." In a strain of marvellous eloquence he proceeds; and surely no utterance of poet or divine is more pitiful and passionate than this cry wrung from the heart of the great Dean Donne:-- "That God should let my soul fall out of His hand into a bottomless pit and roll an unremovable stone upon it, ... and never think more of that soul, never have more to do with it; that of that providence of God, that studies the life of every weed, and worm, and ant, and spider, and toad, and viper, there should never, never any beam flow out upon me; that that God, who looked upon me, when I was nothing, and called me when I was not, as though I had been, out of the womb and depth of darkness, will not look upon me now, when, though a miserable, and a banished, and a damned creature, yet I am His creature still, and contribute something to His glory, even in my damnation; that that God, who hath often looked upon me in my foullest uncleanness, and when I had shut out the eye of the day, the sun, and the eye of the night, the taper, and the eyes of all the world, with curtains and windows and doors, did yet see me, and see me in mercy, by making me see that He saw me, and sometimes brought me to a present remorse and (for that time) to a forbearing of that sin, should so turn Himself from me to His glorious Saints and Angels, as that no Saint nor Angel nor Christ Jesus Himself should ever pray Him to look towards me, never remember Him that such a soul there is; that that God,--who hath so often said to my soul _Quare morieris_? Why wilt thou die? and so often sworn to my soul _Vivit Dominus_, As the Lord liveth I would not have thee die but live,--will neither let me die nor let me live, but die an everlasting life and live an everlasting death; that that God, who when He could not get into me by standing and knocking, by His ordinary means of entering, by His word, His mercies, hath applied His judgments and hath shaked the house, this body, with agues and palsies, and set this house on fire with fevers and calentures, and frighted the master of the house, my soul, with horrors and heavy apprehensions, and so made an entrance into me; that that God should frustrate all His own purposes and practises upon me, and leave me and cast me away, as though I had cost Him nothing; that this God at last should let this soul go away, as a smoke, as a vapour, as a bubble, and that then this soul cannot be a smoke, a vapour, nor a bubble, but must lie in darkness, as long as the Lord of light is light itself, and never spark of that light reach to my soul: what Tophet is not Paradise, what brimstone is not amber, what gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage-bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God!" [1] Add. MS. 24,487 ("Chorus Vatum"). [2] Grosart's _Introduction_ to Marston's _Poems_, 1879 (privately printed). [3] Elizabeth Guarsi, the poet's grandmother, on the death of her husband, Andrew Guarsi, had married John Butler of Wardington, co. Oxon. [4] I have to thank the Dean of Winchester for supplying me, from the books of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, with the date of Marston's presentation. The date of his resignation had been previously communicated to me by Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, who procured it from the Diocesan Registry, Winchester. [5] The will was printed in Halliwell's preface to his edition of Marston. Dr. Grosart gives a literatim copy (which I have followed) collated by Col. Chester with the original. [6] An abstract of her will, communicated by Col. Chester, is printed in Dr. Grosart's _Introduction_ (p. xxiv.). To her "reverend Pastor Master Edward Calamy"--the famous puritan minister, _Edmund_ Calamy--she leaves "6 angels as a token of my respect." [7] _Pygmalion's Image_ was republished, without the satires, in 1613 and 1628, in a volume containing the anonymous poem _Alcilia_ and S. P.'s [Samuel Page's?] _Amos and Laura_. [8] In the epigram he refers to the _nom de plume_ "Kinsayder" which Marston had adopted, and we learn that it was derived from the "kinsing" (cutting the tails?) of dogs. It is to be noticed that the name "Kinsayder" does not occur in the _Pygmalion_ volume. The dedicatory verses to "The World's Mighty Monarch, Good Opinion," are merely subscribed with the initials "W. K." We first find the full name "W. Kinsayder" in the address "To those that seem judicial perusers," prefixed to _The Scourge of Villainy_. [9] The title shows Hall was the original aggressor (at least in Marston's opinion). Guilpin in the sixth satire of _Skialetheia_ alludes to Marston's "Reactio" in a somewhat enigmatic manner. See note, vol. iii. p. 287. [10] Both _The Whipping_ and _The Whipper_ are exceedingly rare. Sir Charles Isham, Bart., of Lamport Hall, possesses a little volume (the loan of which I gratefully acknowledge) which contains these two tracts and Nicholas Breton's _No Whipping No Tripping_. [11] Dr. Nicholson suggests that the character of Furor Poeticus in this play was intended as a satirical portrait of Marston. The suggestion is very plausible. [12] "This should be _town_. To _bring to town_ = to bring home."--P. A. Daniel. (I prefer the old reading.) [13] There were really two separate editions of the unrevised play published in 1604. I too hastily assumed that the copy in the Dyce Library was identical with the copy in the British Museum, apart from such textual variations as are frequently found in copies of the same impression of an old play; but I have since discovered that the two copies belong to separate editions. The title of the enlarged edition is curious: _The Malcontent. Augmented by Marston. With the Additions played by the Kings Maiesties Servants. Written by Ihon Webster._ Slovenly wording and vicious punctuation. John Davies of Hereford, in the _Scourge of Folly_ (1611?), has the following epigram on _The Malcontent_:-- "_To acute Mr. John Marston._ "Thy _Malcontent_ or Malcontentedness Hath made thee change thy muse, as some do guess; If time misspent make her a malcontent Thou need'st not then her timely change repent. The end will show it; meanwhile do but please With virtuous pains as erst thou didst with ease, Thou shalt be praised and kept from want and woe; So blest are crosses that do bless us so." [14] Perhaps some sage commentator of the future will tell us that Syphax in _Sophonisba_ was intended as a satirical portrait of Ben. [15] It is hard to see why Jonson should be ridiculed for using these epithets. Marston uses two of them ("real" and "Delphic") himself. [16] We have "Port Esquiline" twice in the _Scourge of Villainy_; but the very phrase _Paunch of Esquiline_ occurs in _Histriomastix_ (Simpson's _School of Shakspere_, ii. 51), an anonymous play which undoubtedly contains some of Marston's work. "Zodiac," "ecliptic line," "demonstrate," and "tropics" are also found in _Histriomastix_ (_ibid._ ii. 25-6); they are not in Marston's satires. The other words will be found in the _Scourge of Villainy_. [17] Of _Histriomastix_ I shall have to speak later. [18] Dekker's _Works_ (Pearson's Reprint), i. 195. [19] "Some booksellers this year," says Nixon, "shall not have cause to boast of their winnings, for that many write that flow with phrases and yet are barren in substance, and such are neither wise nor witty; others are so concise that you need a commentary to understand them, others have good wits but so critical that they arraign other men's works at the tribunal seat of every censurious Aristarch's understanding, when their own are sacrificed in Paul's Churchyard for bringing in the _Dutch Courtezan_ to corrupt English conditions and sent away westward for carping both at court, city, and country. For they are so sudden-witted that a flea can no sooner frisk forth but they must needs comment on her." [20] Among the Hatfield MSS. is a letter (communicated to Gifford by the elder Disraeli), dated "1605," of Ben Jonson to Lord Salisbury, in which Jonson writes that he had been committed to prison unexamined and unheard, "and with me a gentleman (whose name may perhaps have come to your lordship), one Mr. George Chapman, a learned and honest man," for introducing into a play some matter which had given offence. With much warmth he declares that, since his "first error," he had been scrupulously careful not to write anything against which objection could be taken. Gifford assumed that "first error" referred to _Eastward Ho_, and that Jonson was suffering for another offence when the letter was written. What the "first error" was cannot be determined with certainty, for it is not improbable that Jonson was frequently in trouble. It is quite possible that the letter was written when Jonson and Chapman were in prison on the _Eastward Ho_ charge. Jonson may have written on Chapman's behalf and his own, leaving Marston to shift for himself. But such conduct would have been ungenerous; and I prefer to adopt Gifford's view that the imprisonment of which the letter complains was not connected with _Eastward Ho_. Besides, the satirical reflections on the Scots, and any particular allusions to Sir James Graham, would have been more pertinent in 1603 than in 1605. [21] In _Every Man out of his Humour_, iii. 3, we have:-- "Whereas let him be poor and meanly clad, Though ne'er so richly _parted_," &c. [22] The words "He [_i.e._, Lampatho] breaks a jest" have the look of a stage-direction. [23] _The Insatiate Countesse. London, Printed by N. O. for Thomas Archer_, &c., 1616, 4to. [24] The full title is [_The_] _Insatiate Covntesse. A Tragedy: Acted, at White-Friers. Written, By William Barksteed. London, Printed for Hvgh Perrie, and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Harrow in Brittaines-Burse_. 1631. 4to. [25] Reprinted in Dr. Grosart's valuable _Occasional Issues_. [26] These plays are printed in the second volume of Simpson's _School of Shakspere_. I have not included them in this edition of Marston; they are of little value and are easily accessible. Marston's share in _Histriomastix_ was slight. [27] See Simpson's _School of Shakespere_, ii. 127. [28] Probably the Rev. John Marston, of St. Mary Magdalene, Canterbury, who published in 1642 _A Sermon preached ... before many ... Members of the House of Commons_. [29] In his _Shakespeare_ Collier states that the letter was written in 1605, and that it refers to the Gunpowder Plot; but in his _Bibliographical Account_, 1. xxiv*, correcting his former statement, he says that the letter was written in 1641, and that it concerns the arrest of the Five Members. [30] In some copies the author's name is not given, and the title-page runs, _Tragedies and Comedies collected into one volume, viz._ 1. _Antonio and Mellida._ 2. _Antonio's Revenge._ 3. _The Tragedie of Sophonisba._ 4. _What You Will._ 5. _The Fawne._ 6. _The Dutch Courtezan._ [31] Some verses, signed "Jo. Mar.," prefixed to Donne's _Poems_, 1633, have been ascribed to Marston; but, as the heading of the verses is "Hexasticon _Bibliopolae_," and as the publisher or _bibliopola_ was Jo[hn] Mar[riott], Marston's claim can hardly be sustained. ADDENDA. Vol. i. page 13. "Blind Gew."--I have come upon a mention of this actor in the fifth satire of Edward Guilpin's _Skialetheia_, 1598:-- "But who's in yonder coach? my lord and fool, One that for ape-tricks can put _Gue_ to school." Guilpin's eleventh epigram is addressed "_To Gue_":-- "_Gue_, hang thyself for woe, since gentlemen Are now grown cunning in thy apishness," &c. Page 15, line 17. "_Heavy_ dryness."--I was wrong in accepting the reading of ed. 1633 in preference to the "_heathy_ dryness" of ed. 1602. _Heathy_ is a Marstonian word; and we find it in act iv. of _Jack Drum's Entertainment_:-- "Good faith, troth is they are all apes and gulls, Vile imitating spirits, dry _heathy_ turfs." Page 60, line 256. Dr. Nicholson proposes "Her _own_ heels, God knows, _are not_ half so light"--a good emendation. Page 239, line 21. "Distilled oxpith," &c.--We have a similar list of provocatives in John Mason's _Turk_, first published in 1610, but written some years previously:-- "Here is a compound of Cantharides, diositerion, _marrow of an ox_, _hairs of a lion_, stones of a goat, _cock-sparrows' brains_, and such like." (_Sig. F. 3, verso._) Page 311, lines 88, 89. "Life is a frost ... vanity."--I have discovered that these lines are from an epigram in Thomas Bastard's _Chrestoleros_, 1598, sig. H. I quote the epigram in full, as it is of striking solemnity:-- "When I behold with deep astonishment To famous Westminster how there resort, Living in brass or stony monument, The princes and the worthies of all sort, Do not I see reform'd nobility Without contempt or pride or ostentation? And look upon offenceless majesty Naked of pomp or earthly domination? And how a play-game of a painted stone Contents the quiet now and silent sprites Whom all the world, which late they stood upon, Could not content nor squench [_sic_] their appetites? _Life is a frost of cold felicity And death the thaw of all our vanity._" Vol. ii. page 355, line 274. Mr. P. A. Daniel suggests that for "others' fate" we should read "adverse fate." Vol. iii. page 51, lines 41-2. "_But a little higher, but a little higher_," &c.--These lines are from a song of Campion, beginning-- "Mistress, since you so much desire To know the place of Cupid's fire," &c. No. xvi. in Campion and Rosseter's _Book of Airs_, 1601. They occur again in Campion's _Fourth Book of Airs_, No. xxii. Page 243, line 247. "Like Mycerinus," &c.--I notice that a similar emendation is made, in a seventeenth century hand, in the margin of one of Dyce's copies at South Kensington. My emendation was printed before I discovered that it had been anticipated. ERRATA. VOL. I. Page 64, line 48, for _Tyrrian_ read _Tyrian_. Page 120, note 2, for _Grumean_ read _Grumeau_. Page 159, note 1, for "The star-led wisards _hasten_" read "The star-led wisards _haste_." Page 191, after "_Antonii Vindictae_" the word "_Finis_" should be added (_i.e._, "End of Antonio's Revenge"). VOL. II. Page 125, note 2, after "_The Famous History of Fryer_" add "_Bacon_." Page 322, line 15, for "Sir Signior" read "Sir, Signior" (comma after "Sir"). Page 363, for "Still _went_ on went I" read "Still on went I" (an annoying blunder). Page 394, lines 158-9, in "delicious, sweet" the comma should be struck out, as "sweet" is doubtless to be taken as a substantive. VOL. III. Page 3, five lines from the bottom, read "insists _on_ starting." Page 342, note 2, in "Huc usque _of_ Xylinum" del. "of." ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS AND EMENDATIONS. For the following corrections and emendations I am indebted to Mr. P. A. Daniel. I am sorry that I did not have them earlier. First I will correct the actual mistakes for which I must bear the responsibility (in whole or part). Vol. i., page xxxviii., line 11, for "Sir James Graham" read "Sir James Murray." Vol. i., page 26, line 205, for "The first thing he spake" read "The first _word that_ he spake." Vol. i., page 60, line 263, for "_in_ time to come" the old eds. read "time to come." (I prefer "_in_ time," but should not have added "_in_" silently.) Vol. i., page 89, line 296, "His father's" [fathers] is the reading of ed. 1602; but ed. 1633 gives "His father"--a better reading. Vol. i., page 121, line 318, for "aspish" read "apish." Vol. i., page 175, line 78, for "scorn'_d_" read "scorn'_t_." Vol. ii., page 17, the stage-direction "_Enter_ COCLEDEMOY" is superfluous. Vol. ii., page 28, line 160, for "_feast_ o' grace" (where old eds. give _fiest_) read "_fist_ o' grace," and compare page 42, line 58, &c. Vol. ii., page 32, line 33, for "not swaggering" read "not _of_ swaggering." Vol. ii., page 109. The address should be headed "To _my_ Equal Reader." Vol. ii., page 197, line 417, for "show" read "sue" (the reading of ed. 1633). Vol. ii., page 213, line 92, delete "not." Vol. ii., page 222, line 308, in "thy vice _from_ apparent here" delete "from." (But query "thy vice from apparent heir"?) Vol. ii., page 277, line 117, "All but Zanthia and Vangue depart." Unquestionably these words are a stage-direction. They are printed as part of the text in ed. 1633; but in ed. 1606 they are italicised, and (though printed in the same line as "Withdraw, withdraw") evidently form part of the previous stage-direction. Vol. ii., page 328, for "For many debts" read "For many many debts." Vol. ii., page 341, line 227, for "For" read "Fore." Vol. ii., page 346, line 51, for "_hoary_ eld" ed. 1607 reads "hoard," and ed. 1633 "hoar'd." Probably the true reading is "hoar." Vol. ii., page 369, lines 37-38. These lines have been transposed by my printers; line 38 ("And those that rank," &c.) should stand before line 37 ("Study a faint salute," &c.). In the foregoing instances it is I who am chiefly to blame, and not the old copies. I now come to Mr. Daniel's valuable emendations. Vol. i., page 8, line 35, for "great" read "create" (an excellent emendation). Vol. i., page 32, line 56. Does not this speech belong to Feliche? Vol. i., page 53, line 107. The prefix should be "_Cat_." Vol. i., page 60, line 247. Add the stage-direction "_Exit_ ANTONIO." Vol. i., page 70, line 182. Mr. Daniel suggests that for "_Spavento_" (an awkward word here) we should read "_Speranza_." Vol. i., page 110. "_Enter_ ANTONIO," &c.--Strike out the names of Feliche and Forobosco. Vol. i., page 128, line 107, for "How could he come on?" Mr. Daniel proposes "How coldly he comes on!" [Vol. i., page 142, line 2. In old eds. the line stands thus:--"Bout heauens brow. (12) Tis now starke dead night." The bracketed "(12)" I expanded into a stage-direction; but Mr. Swinburne suggests to me that "the word 'twelve'--ejaculated by Antonio on hearing the clock strike--is wanted for the metre." If we are to insert the word "twelve" I should place it at the end of the line.] Vol. i., page 145, line 54, for "The neat gay _mists_ of the light's not up" Mr. Daniel suggests "The neat gay mistress," &c. (_i.e._, Aurora)--an admirable emendation. [Vol. i., page 150, line 190, for "swell thy _hour_ out" Mr. Swinburne proposes "honour." If any change is needed I should prefer to read "horror;" but "hour" frequently has a dissyllabic value.] Vol. i., page 151, line 211, for "night-ghosts and graves" Mr. Daniel would read "Night (_i.e._, good-night), ghosts and graves." Vol. i., page 156, line 99, for "Why lags delay" Mr. Daniel would read "Why, lags, delay?" taking lags as a substantive ("the sooty coursers of the night"). Vol. i., page 158, line 41. I should have mentioned in a footnote that "stirs" is an old form of "steers." [Vol. i., page 172, line 22. Mr. Swinburne doubts whether my correction "see" for "sir" is necessary, as the apostrophe "sir" or "sirs" is occasionally found in a monologue.] Vol. ii., page 9, line 54. Here, and in line 58, the prefix should be "_Tys._"; and at line 62 Tysefew's _exit_ should be marked. Vol. ii., page 16. At the bottom of the page should be marked "_Exit_ MARY," and at line 180 "_Exit_ COCLEDEMOY." Vol. ii., page 86. "_Enter_ FRANCESCHINA," &c. Among those who enter should be included "FREEVILLE _disguised_." Vol. ii., page 93, line 46. "Ha, get you gone." It is a question whether these words apply to Freeville's disguise or are addressed to musicians. (In spite of line 32, "I bring some music," it is doubtful whether there are any musicians on the stage.) Vol. ii., page 139, line 111. "Nymphadoro, in direct phrase." Mr. Daniel proposes (rightly) to read:-- "_Nym._ In direct phrase," &c. Vol. ii., page 145, line 252. This speech should probably be given to Herod. Vol. ii., page 153, line 460. The prefix should doubtless be "_Zuc_." Vol. ii., page 154, lines 477, 478. "And nose" should doubtless be given to Hercules, and "And brain" to Zuccone. Vol. ii., page 157, line 569. The old. eds give "Venice duke," but we should read "Urbin's duke" (cf. page 226, line 444). Vol. ii., page 171, line 299. Mr. Daniel suggests that we should place a full stop after the word "speaks" and read "His signs to me and _mien_ of profound reach." Vol. ii., page 248, line 134. The words "No more: I bleed" appear to belong to the wounded Carthalon. Vol. ii., page 261, lines 21, 22. Query "bemoan'_t_" and "revenge'_t_"? Vol. ii., page 414, line 244, for "prolonged" Mr. Daniel ingeniously suggests "prologued." Vol. iii., page 214, line 78, for "faint" Mr. Daniel proposes "feigned" (a certain emendation). In line 91, for "I resisted" he proposes "if resisted." Vol. iii., page 240, line 166, for "stung" Mr. Daniel proposes "stone." Mr. Daniel sends me the following note on the plot of _What You Will_:-- "A somewhat similar plot is found in _I Morti Vivi_, Comedia, del molto excellente signore Sforza D'Oddi, nell'Academia degli Insensati detto Forsennato, 1576. Oranta, a lady of Naples, whose husband, Tersandro, is supposed drowned at sea, is about to re-marry with Ottavio. Luigi, another suitor for her hand, to hinder the marriage conspires with others to induce one Iancola to personate Tersandro. Tersandro, however, has escaped the sea, and arrives to find himself denied by his own family (who have discovered Luigi's plot), and to be mistaken by the conspirators themselves for Iancola. Tersandro's adventures till his identity is established are somewhat similar to those of Albano in _What You Will_. "D'Oddi apparently derived many incidents of his plot from the Greek romance of _Clitophon and Leucippe_, by Achilles Tatius; as also did Anibal Caro for his comedy of _Gli Straccioni_, 1582." FIRST PART OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA. _The History of Antonio and Mellida. The first part. As it hath beene sundry times acted, by the children of Paules. Written by I. M. London Printed for Mathewe Lownes, and Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde in Saint Dunstans Church-yarde._ 1602. 4to. STORY OF THE PLAY. Andrugio, Duke of Genoa, being utterly defeated in a sea-fight by Piero Sforza, Duke of Venice, and banished by the Genoways, conceals himself, with Lucio (an old courtier) and a page, among the marshes round Venice. Piero proclaims throughout Italy that whoever brings the head of Andrugio or of Andrugio's son, Antonio (who is in love with Piero's daughter, Mellida), shall receive a reward of twenty thousand pistolets. Antonio disguises himself as an Amazon, and, obtaining an interview with Mellida, announces that her lover has been drowned at sea. The pretended Amazon is received as a guest in Piero's palace, and there quickly discovers himself to Mellida. Arrangements are made by the lovers to escape to England; but Piero gaining intelligence (through a letter that Mellida has dropped) of the intended flight, the plot is frustrated and Mellida escapes to the marshes in the disguise of a page. While Piero is giving orders for Antonio's arrest, a sailor rushes forward, pretending to be in hot pursuit of Antonio towards the marshes. The pursuer is Antonio himself, who had assumed the disguise of a sailor at the instance of Feliche, a high-minded gentleman of the Venetian court. Piero gives the pretended sailor his signet-ring that he may pass the watch and not be hindered in the pursuit. Arrived at the marshes, Antonio, distracted with grief for the fall of his father and for the loss of Mellida, flings himself prostrate on the ground. Presently Andrugio approaches with Lucio and the page, and a joyful meeting ensues between father and son. Andrugio and Lucio retire to a cave which they had fitted up as a dwelling, and Antonio, promising to quickly rejoin them, stays to hear a song from Andrugio's page. Meanwhile Mellida, disguised as a page, approaches unobserved, and hearing her name passionately pronounced, recognises the sailor as Antonio. She discovers herself to her lover, and after a brief colloquy despatches him across the marsh to observe whether any pursuers are in sight. Hardly has Antonio departed when Piero and his followers come up, and Mellida is drawn from a thicket where she had concealed herself. Piero hastens back to the court with his daughter, whom he resolves to marry out of hand to Galeatzo, son of the Duke of Florence. Antonio, returning in company with Andrugio and Lucio to the spot where he had left Mellida, learns from Andrugio's page that she has been carried away. Andrugio now separates himself from Antonio and Lucio; proceeds, clad in a complete suit of armour, to the court of Piero, and announces that he has come to claim the reward offered for Andrugio's head. Piero declares his willingness to pay the reward; and then Andrugio, raising his beaver, discovers himself to Piero and the assembled courtiers. Piero affects to be struck with admiration for his adversary's magnanimity, and professes friendship for the future. A funeral procession now enters, followed by Lucio, who announces that he has brought the body of Antonio. Andrugio mourns for the death of his son and Piero affects to share his grief, protesting that he would give his own life or his daughter's hand to purchase breath for the dead man. Thereupon Antonio, who had died only in conceit, rises from the bier and claims the hand of Mellida. Piero assents, and the _First Part of Antonio and Mellida_ closes joyfully. _To the only rewarder and most just poiser of virtuous merits, the most honourably renowned_ NOBODY,[32] _bounteous Mecaenas of poetry and Lord Protector of oppressed innocence_, do dedicoque. Since it hath flowed with the current of my humorous blood to affect (a little too much) to be seriously fantastical, here take (most respected Patron) the worthless present of my slighter idleness. If you vouchsafe not his protection, then, O thou sweetest perfection (Female Beauty), shield me from the stopping of vinegar bottles. Which most wished favour if it fail me, then _Si nequeo flectere superos, Acheronta movebo_. But yet, honour's redeemer, virtue's advancer, religion's shelter, and piety's fosterer, yet, yet, I faint not in despair of thy gracious affection and protection; to which I only shall ever rest most servingman-like, obsequiously making legs and standing (after our free-born English garb) bareheaded. Thy only affied slave and admirer, J. M. [32] So Day dedicates his _Humour out of Breath_ to "Signior Nobody." _DRAMATIS PERSONAE._[33] PIERO SFORZA, _Duke of Venice_. ANDRUGIO, _Duke of Genoa_. ANTONIO, _son to_ ANDRUGIO, _in love with_ MELLIDA. FELICHE, _a high-minded courtier_. ALBERTO, _a Venetian gentleman, in love with_ ROSSALINE. BALURDO, _a rich gull_. MATZAGENTE, _a modern braggadoch, son to the Duke of Milan_. GALEATZO, _son to the Duke of Florence, a suitor to_ MELLIDA. FOROBOSCO, _a Parasite_. CASTILIO BALTHAZAR, _a spruce courtier_. LUCIO,[34] _an old nobleman, friend to_ ANDRUGIO. CATZO, _page to_ CASTILIO. DILDO, _page to_ BALURDO. _Painter_, ANDRUGIO'S _page, &c._ MELLIDA, _daughter to_ PIERO, _in love with_ ANTONIO. ROSSALINE, _niece to_ PIERO. FLAVIA, _a waiting-woman_. SCENE--VENICE AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. [33] There is no list of characters in old eds. [34] Dilke (_Old English Plays_, 1814, vol. ii.) wrongly describes Lucio as Andrugio's page. INDUCTION.[35] _Enter_ GALEATZO, PIERO, ALBERTO, ANTONIO, FOROBOSCO, BALURDO, MATZAGENTE, _and_ FELICHE, _with parts in their hands; having cloaks cast over their apparel_. _Gal._ Come, sirs, come! the music will sound straight for entrance. Are ye ready, are ye perfect? _Pier._ Faith! we can say our parts; but we are ignorant in what mould we must cast our actors. _Alb._ Whom do you personate? _Pier._ Piero, Duke of Venice. _Alb._ O! ho! then thus frame your exterior shape To haughty form of elate majesty, As if you held the palsy-shaking head Of reeling chance under your fortune's belt 10 In strictest vassalage: grow big in thought, As swoln with glory of successful arms. _Pier._ If that be all, fear not; I'll suit it right. Who cannot be proud, stroke up the hair, and strut? _Alb._ Truth; such rank custom is grown popular; And now the vulgar fashion strides as wide, And stalks as proud upon the weakest stilts Of the slight'st fortunes, as if Hercules Or burly Atlas shoulder'd up their state. _Pier._ Good: but whom act you? 20 _Alb._ The necessity[36] of the play forceth me to act two parts: Andrugio, the distressed Duke of Genoa, and Alberto, a Venetian gentleman, enamoured on the Lady Rossaline; whose fortunes being too weak to sustain the port of her, he proved always disastrous in love; his worth being much underpoised by the uneven scale, that currents all things by the outward stamp of opinion. _Gal._ Well, and what dost thou play? _Bal._ The part of all the world. _Alb._ The part of all the world? What's that? 30 _Bal._ The fool. Ay, in good deed law now, I play Balurdo, a wealthy mountbanking burgomasco's heir of Venice. _Alb._ Ha! ha! one whose foppish nature might seem great, only for wise men's recreation; and, like a juiceless bark, to preserve the sap of more strenuous spirits. A servile hound, that loves the scent of forerunning fashion, like an empty hollow vault, still giving an echo to wit: greedily champing what any other well valued judgment had beforehand chew'd.[37] 40 _Foro._ Ha! ha! ha! tolerably good, good faith, sweet wag. _Alb._ Umph; why tolerably good, good faith, sweet wag? Go, go; you flatter me. _Foro._ Right; I but dispose my speech to the habit of my part. _Alb._ Why, what plays he? [_To_ FELICHE. _Feli._ The wolf that eats into the breasts of princes; that breeds the lethargy and falling sickness in honour; makes justice look asquint; and blinds[38] the eye of merited reward from viewing desertful virtue. 51 _Alb._ What's all this periphrasis, ha? _Feli._ The substance of a supple-chapt flatterer. _Alb._ O! doth he play Forobosco the Parasite? Good, i'faith. Sirrah, you must seem now as glib and straight in outward semblance as a lady's busk,[39] though inwardly as cross as a pair of tailors' legs; having a tongue as nimble as his needle, with servile patches of glavering flattery to stitch up the bracks[40] of unworthily honour'd-- 60 _Foro._ I warrant you, I warrant you, you shall see me prove the very periwig to cover the bald pate of brainless gentility. Ho! I will so tickle the sense of _bella gratiosa madonna_ with the titillation of hyperbolical praise, that I'll strike it in the nick, in the very nick, chuck. _Feli._ Thou promisest more than I hope any spectator gives faith of performance; but why look you so dusky, ha? [_To_ ANTONIO. _Ant._ I was never worse fitted since the nativity of my actorship; I shall be hiss'd at, on my life now. 70 _Feli._ Why, what must you play? _Ant._ Faith, I know not what; an hermaphrodite, two parts in one; my true person being Antonio, son to the Duke of Genoa; though for the love of Mellida, Piero's daughter, I take this feigned presence of an Amazon, calling myself Florizell, and I know not what. I a voice to play a lady! I shall ne'er do it. _Alb._ O! an Amazon should have such a voice, virago-like. Not play two parts in one? away, away, 'tis common fashion. Nay, if you cannot bear two subtle fronts under one hood, idiot, go by, go by, off this world's stage! O time's impurity! 82 _Ant._ Ay, but when use hath taught me action To hit the right point of a lady's part, I shall grow ignorant, when I must turn Young prince again, how but to truss[41] my hose. _Feli._ Tush, never put them off; for women wear the breeches still. _Mat._ By the bright honour of a Milanoise, And the resplendent fulgor of this steel, 90 I will defend the feminine to death, And ding[42] his spirit to the verge of hell, That dares divulge a lady's prejudice! [_Exeunt_ MATZAGENTE, FOROBOSCO, _and_ BALURDO.[43] _Feli._ Rampum scrampum, mount tufty Tamburlaine! What rattling thunderclap breaks from his lips? _Alb._ O! 'tis native to his part. For acting a modern[44] braggadoch under the person of Matzagente, the Duke of Milan's son, it may seem to suit with good fashion of coherence. 99 _Pier._ But methinks he speaks with a spruce Attic accent of adulterate Spanish. _Alb._ So 'tis resolv'd. For Milan being half Spanish, half high Dutch, and half Italians, the blood of chiefest houses is corrupt and mongrel'd; so that you shall see a fellow vain-glorious for a Spaniard, gluttonous for a Dutchman, proud for an Italian, and a fantastic idiot for all. Such a one conceit this Matzagente. _Feli._ But I have a part allotted me, which I have neither able apprehension to conceit, nor what I conceit gracious ability to utter. 110 _Gal._ Whoop, in the old cut![45] Good, show us a draught of thy spirit. _Feli._ 'Tis steady and must seem so impregnably fortressed with his own content that no envious thought could ever invade his spirit; never surveying any man so unmeasuredly happy, whom I thought not justly hateful for some true impoverishment; never beholding any favour of Madam Felicity gracing another, which his well-bounded content persuaded not to hang in the front of his own fortune; and therefore as far from envying any man, as he valued all men infinitely distant from accomplished beatitude. These native adjuncts appropriate to me the name of Feliche. But last, good, thy humour. 124 [_Exeunt_ PIERO, ALBERTO, _and_ GALEATZO.[46] _Ant._ 'Tis to be described by signs and tokens. For unless I were possessed with a legion of spirits, 'tis impossible to be made perspicuous by any utterance: for sometimes he must take austere state, as for the person of Galeatzo, the son of the Duke of Florence, and possess his exterior presence with a formal majesty: keep popularity in distance, and on the sudden fling his honour so prodigally into a common arm, that he may seem to give up his indiscretion to the mercy of vulgar censure. Now as solemn as a traveller,[47] and as grave as a Puritan's ruff;[48] with the same breath as slight and scattered in his fashion as a--a--anything; now as sweet and neat as a barber's casting-bottle;[49] straight as slovenly as the yeasty breast of an ale-knight: now lamenting, then chafing, straight laughing, then----. 140 _Feli._ What then? _Ant._ Faith, I know not what; 't had been a right part for Proteus or Gew. Ho! blind Gew[50] would ha' done 't rarely, rarely. _Feli._ I fear it is not possible to limn so many persons in so small a tablet as the compass of our plays afford. _Ant._ Right! therefore I have heard that those persons, as he and you, Feliche, that are but slightly drawn in this comedy, should receive more exact accomplishment in a second part; which, if this obtain gracious acceptance, means to try his fortune. 151 _Feli._ Peace, here comes the Prologue: clear the stage. [_Exeunt._ [35] We have an Induction before _What you Will_ and _The Malcontent_. Ben Jonson was particularly fond of introducing preliminary dialogues, which are usually so tedious that we are fain to exclaim with Cordatus (in the Induction to _Every Man out of his Humour_), "I would they would begin once; this protraction is able to sour the best settled patience in the theatre." [36] _I.e._, the poverty of the theatrical company. It was common for an actor to represent two characters (or more) in the same play. For example, William Shurlock personated Maharbal and Prusias in Nabbes' _Hannibal and Scipio_, 1635; and in the same play, Hugh Clerke, besides taking the part of Syphax, personated the Nuntius. [37] Old eds. "shew'd." [38] So ed. 1633.--The 4to gives "blinks." [39] A piece of whalebone, steel, or wood worn down the front of the stays to keep them straight. [40] Rents, cracks. [41] "Truss my hose" = tie the tagged laces of my breeches. [42] Hurl violently. [43] Old eds. "_Exeunt_ ANT. _and_ ALB." [44] Common, worthless.--The use of "modern" in this sense is frequently found, and was sanctioned by Shakespeare; but it did not escape Ben Jonson's censure in _The Poetaster_, v. i.:-- "Alas! that were no _modern_ consequence To have cothurnal buskins frightened hence." [45] "The old cut" = the old fashion. So Nashe in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to _Strange News of the Intercepting Certain Letters_, 1593:--"You are amongst grave Doctors and men of judgment in both laws every day. I pray ask them the question in my absence whether such a man as I have described this epistler to be ... that hath made many proper rhymes of the _old cut_ in his days," &c. [46] Old eds. "_Exit_ ALB." [47] "Jaques in _As You Like It_, describing his own melancholy, says it is extracted from many objects, and that the contemplation of his travels often wraps him in a most humorous sadness: on which Rosalind observes--'A traveller! by my faith you have great reason to be sad!'"--_Dilke._ [48] The Puritans' short starched ruffs were constantly ridiculed. See Middleton's _Works_, viii. 69. [49] A bottle for sprinkling perfumes. [50] Probably an actor who had gone blind; but I can find no information about him. THE PROLOGUE. The wreath of pleasure and delicious sweets, Begirt the gentle front of this fair troop! Select and most respected auditors, For wit's sake do not dream of miracles. Alas! we shall but falter, if you lay The least sad weight of an unused hope Upon our weakness; only we give up The worthless present of slight idleness To your authentic censure. O! that our Muse Had those abstruse and sinewy faculties, 10 That, with a strain of fresh invention, She might press out the rarity of Art; The pur'st elixed juice of rich conceit In your attentive ears; that with the lip Of gracious elocution we might drink A sound carouse into your health of wit. But O! the heavy[51] dryness of her brain, Foil to your fertile spirits, is asham'd To breathe her blushing numbers to such ears. Yet (most ingenious) deign to veil our wants; 20 With sleek acceptance polish these rude scenes; And if our slightness your large hope beguiles, Check not with bended brow, but dimpled smiles. [_Exit_ Prologue. [51] So ed. 1633.--Ed. 1602 "heathy." THE FIRST PART OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA. ACT I. SCENE I. _Neighbourhood of Venice._ _The cornets sound a battle within._ _Enter_ ANTONIO, _disguised like an Amazon_. _Ant._ Heart, wilt not break? and thou abhorred life, Wilt thou still breathe in my enraged blood? Veins, sinews, arteries, why crack ye not, Burst and divulst with anguish of my grief? Can man by no means creep out of himself, And leave the slough of viperous grief behind? Antonio, hast thou seen a fight at sea, As horrid as the hideous day of doom, Betwixt thy father, Duke of Genoa, And proud Piero, the Venetian Prince: 10 In which the sea hath swoln with Genoa's blood, And made spring-tides with the warm reeking gore, That gush'd from out our galleys' scupper-holes? In which thy father, poor Andrugio, Lies sunk, or leap'd into the arms of chance, Choked with the labouring ocean's brackish foam; Who, even despite Piero's canker'd hate, Would with an armed hand have seized thy love, And link'd thee to the beauteous Mellida. Have I outlived the death of all these hopes? 20 Have I felt anguish pour'd into my heart, Burning like balsamum in tender wounds! And yet dost live! Could not the fretting sea Have roll'd me up in wrinkles of his brow? Is death grown coy, or grim confusion nice, That it will not accompany a wretch, But I must needs be cast on Venice' shore, And try new fortunes with this strange disguise To purchase my adored Mellida? [_The cornets sound a flourish; cease._ Hark how Piero's triumphs beat the air! 30 O, rugged mischief, how thou grat'st my heart!-- Take spirit, blood; disguise, be confident; Make a firm stand; here rests the hope of all: Lower than hell, there is no depth to fall. _The cornets sound a senet. Enter_ FELICHE _and_ ALBERTO, CASTILIO _and_ FOROBOSCO, _a_ Page _carrying a shield_; PIERO _in armour_; CATZO _and_ DILDO _and_ BALURDO. _All these_ (_saving_ PIERO) _armed with petronels_.[52] _Being entered, they make a stand in divided files_. _Pier._ Victorious Fortune, with triumphant hand, Hurleth my glory 'bout this ball of earth, Whilst the Venetian Duke is heaved up On wings of fair success, to overlook The low-cast ruins of his enemies, To see myself adored and Genoa quake; 40 My fate is firmer than mischance can shake. _Feli._ Stand; the ground trembleth. _Pier._ Ha! an earthquake? _Bal._ O! I smell a sound. _Feli._ Piero, stay, for I descry a fume Creeping from out the bosom of the deep, The breath of darkness, fatal when 'tis wist In greatness' stomach. This same smoke, call'd pride, Take heed: she'll lift thee to improvidence, And break thy neck from steep security; 50 She'll make thee grudge to let Jehovah share In thy successful battles. O! she's ominous; Enticeth princes to devour heaven, Swallow omnipotence, out-stare dread fate, Subdue eternity in giant thought; Heaves[53] up their heart[54] with swelling, puff'd conceit, Till their souls burst with venom'd arrogance. Beware, Piero; Rome itself hath tried, Confusion's train blows up this Babel pride. _Pier._ Pish! _Dimitto superos, summa votorum attigi._[55] 60 Alberto, hast thou yielded up our fix'd decree Unto the Genoan ambassador? Are they content, if that their Duke return, To send his and his son Antonio's head, As pledges steep'd in blood, to gain their peace? _Alb._ With most obsequious sleek-brow'd entertain, They all embrace it as most gracious. _Pier._ Are proclamations sent through Italy, That whosoever brings Andrugio's head, Or young Antonio's, shall be guerdoned 70 With twenty thousand double pistolets, And be endeared to Piero's love? _Foro._ They are sent every way: sound policy, Sweet lord. _Feli._ [_Aside._] Confusion to these limber sycophants! No sooner mischiefs born in regency, But flattery christens it with policy.[56] _Pier._ Why, then,--_O me coelitum excelsissimum!_ The intestine malice and inveterate hate I always bore to that Andrugio, 80 Glories in triumph o'er his misery; Nor shall that carpet-boy[57] Antonio Match with my daughter, sweet-cheek'd Mellida. No; the public power makes my faction strong. _Feli._ Ill, when public power strength'neth private wrong. _Pier._ 'Tis horse-like not for man to know his force. _Feli._ 'Tis god-like for a man to feel remorse.[58] _Pier._ Pish! I prosecute my family's revenge, Which I'll pursue with such a burning chase, Till I have dried up all Andrugio's blood; 90 Weak rage, that with slight pity is withstood.-- [_The cornets sound a flourish._ What means that fresh triumphal flourish sound? _Alb._ The prince of Milan, and young Florence' heir, Approach to gratulate your victory. _Pier._ We'll girt them with an ample waste of love. Conduct them to our presence royally; Let vollies of the great artillery From off our galleys' banks[59] play prodigal, And sound loud welcome from their bellowing mouths. [_Exeunt all but_ PIERO. _The cornets sound a senet. Enter above_, MELLIDA, ROSSALINE, _and_ FLAVIA. _Enter below_, GALEATZO _with Attendants_; PIERO _meeteth him, embraceth; at which the cornets sound a flourish_; PIERO _and_ GALEATZO _exeunt; the rest stand still_. _Mel._ What prince was that passed through my father's guard? 100 _Fla._ 'Twas Galeatzo, the young Florentine. _Ros._ Troth, one that will besiege thy maidenhead; Enter the walls, i'faith (sweet Mellida), If that thy flankers be not cannon-proof. _Mel._ O, Mary Ambree,[60] good, thy judgment, wench? Thy bright election's clear:[61] what will he prove? _Ros._ Hath a short finger and a naked chin, A skipping eye; dare lay my judgment (faith) His love is glibbery;[62] there's no hold on't, wench. Give me a husband whose aspect is firm; 110 A full-cheek'd gallant with a bouncing thigh: O, he is the _Paradizo dell madonne contento_. _Mel._ Even such a one was my Antonio. [_The cornets sound a senet._ _Ros._ By my nine and thirtieth servant, sweet, Thou art in love; but stand on tiptoe,[63] fair; Here comes Saint Tristram Tirlery Whiffe, i'faith. _Enter_ MATZAGENTE; PIERO _meets him, embraceth; at which the cornets sound a flourish: they two stand, using seeming compliments, whilst the scene passeth above_. _Mel._ St. Mark, St. Mark! what kind of thing appears? _Ros._ For fancy's passion, spit upon him! Fie, His face is varnish'd. In the name of love, What country bred that creature? _Mel._ What is he, Flavia? 120 _Fla._ The heir of Milan, Signior Matzagente. _Ros._ Matzagente! now, by my pleasure's hope, He is made like a tilting-staff; and looks For all the world like an o'er-roasted pig: A great tobacco-taker too, that's flat; For his eyes look as if they had been hung In the smoke of his nose. _Mel._ What husband will he prove, sweet Rossaline? _Ros._ Avoid him; for he hath a dwindled leg, A low forehead, and a thin coal-black beard; 130 And will be jealous too, believe it, sweet; For his chin sweats, and hath a gander neck, A thin lip, and a little monkish eye. 'Precious! what a slender waist he hath! He looks like a may-pole,[64] or a notched stick; He'll snap in two at every little strain. Give me a husband that will fill mine arms, Of steady judgment, quick and nimble sense; Fools relish not a lady's excellence. [_Exeunt all on the lower stage; at which the cornets sound a flourish, and a peal of shot is given._ _Mel._ The triumph's ended; but look, Rossaline! 140 What gloomy soul in strange accustrements[65] Walks on the pavement? _Ros._ Good sweet, let's to her; prithee, Mellida. _Mel._ How covetous thou art of novelties! _Ros._ Pish! 'tis our nature to desire things That are thought strangers to the common cut. _Mel._ I am exceeding willing, but---- _Ros._ But what? prithee, go down; let's see her face: God send that neither wit nor beauty wants, Those tempting sweets, affection's adamants. 150 [_Exeunt._ _Ant._ Come down: she comes like--O, no simile Is precious, choice, or elegant enough To illustrate her descent! Leap heart, she comes! She comes! smile heaven, and softest southern wind Kiss her cheek gently with perfumed breath. She comes! creation's purity, admir'd, Ador'd amazing rarity, she comes! O, now, Antonio, press thy spirit forth In following passion, knit thy senses close, Heap up thy powers, double all thy man. 160 _Enter_ MELLIDA, ROSSALINE, _and_ FLAVIA. She comes! O, how her eyes dart wonder on my heart! Mount blood! soul to my lips! taste Hebe's cup: Stand firm on deck, when beauty's close fight's[66] up. _Mel._ Lady, your strange habit doth beget Our pregnant thoughts, even great of much desire, To be acquaint with your condition. _Ros._ Good, sweet lady, without more ceremonies, What country claims your birth? and, sweet, your name? _Ant._ In hope your bounty will extend itself 170 In self-same nature of fair courtesy, I'll shun all niceness; my name's Florizell, My country Scythia; I am Amazon, Cast on this shore by fury of the sea. _Ros._ Nay, faith, sweet creature, we'll not veil our names. It pleas'd the font to dip me Rossaline; That lady bears the name of Mellida, The Duke of Venice' daughter. _Ant._ Madam, I am oblig'd to kiss your hand, By imposition of a now dead man. 180 [_To_ MELLIDA, _kissing her hand_. _Ros._ Now, by my troth, I long, beyond all thought, To know the man; sweet beauty, deign his name. _Ant._ Lady, the circumstance is tedious. _Ros._ Troth, not a whit; good fair, let's have it all: I love not, I, to have a jot left out, If the tale come from a loved orator. _Ant._ Vouchsafe me, then, your hush'd observances.-- Vehement in pursuit of strange novelties, After long travel through the Asian main, I shipp'd my hopeful thoughts for Brittany;[67] 190 Longing to view great Nature's miracle, The glory of our sex, whose fame doth strike Remotest ears with adoration. Sailing some two months with inconstant winds, We view'd the glistering Venetian forts, To which we made: when lo! some three leagues off, We might descry a horrid spectacle; The issue of black fury strew'd the sea With tatter'd carcasses of splitted ships, Half sinking, burning, floating topsy-turvy. 200 Not far from these sad ruins of fell rage, We might behold a creature press the waves; Senseless he sprawl'd, all notch'd with gaping wounds. To him we made, and (short) we took him up; The first thing he spake was,--Mellida! And then he swooned.[68] _Mel._ Ay me! _Ant._ Why sigh you, fair? _Mel._[69] Nothing but little humours; good sweet, on. _Ant._ His wounds being dress'd, and life recovered, We 'gan discourse; when lo! the sea grew mad, His bowels rumbling with wind-passion; 210 Straight swarthy darkness popp'd out Phoebus' eye, And blurr'd the jocund face of bright-cheek'd day; Whilst crudled[70] fogs masked even darkness' brow: Heaven bad's good night, and the rocks groan'd At the intestine uproar of the main. Now gusty flaws strook up the very heels Of our mainmast, whilst the keen lightning shot Through the black bowels of the quaking air; Straight chops a wave, and in his sliftred[71] paunch Down falls our ship, and there he breaks his neck; 220 Which in an instant up was belkt again. When thus this martyr'd soul began to sigh: "Give me your hand (quoth he): now do you grasp Th' unequall'd[72] mirror of ragg'd misery: Is't not a horrid storm? O, well-shaped sweet, Could your quick eye strike through these gashed wounds, You should behold a heart, a heart, fair creature, Raging more wild than is this frantic sea. Wolt[73] do me a favour? if thou chance survive, But visit Venice, kiss the precious white 230 Of my most,--nay, all epithets are base To attribute to gracious Mellida: Tell her the spirit of Antonio Wisheth his last gasp breath'd upon her breast." _Ros._ Why weeps soft-hearted Florizell? _Ant._ Alas, the flinty rocks groan'd at his plaints. "Tell her, (quoth he) that her obdurate sire Hath crack'd his bosom;" therewithal he wept, And thus sigh'd on: "The sea is merciful; Look how it gapes to bury all my grief! 240 Well, thou shalt have it, thou shalt be his tomb: My faith in my love live; in thee, die woe; Die, unmatch'd anguish, die, Antonio!" With that he totter'd from the reeling deck, And down he sunk. _Ros._ Pleasure's body! what makes my Lady weep? _Mel._ Nothing, sweet Rossaline, but the air's sharp[74]-- My father's palace, Madam, will be proud To entertain your presence, if you'll deign To make repose within. Ay me! 250 _Ant._ Lady, our fashion is not curious.[75] _Ros._ 'Faith, all the nobler, 'tis more generous. _Mel._ Shall I then know how fortune fell at last, What succour came, or what strange fate ensued? _Ant._ Most willingly: but this same court is vast, And public to the staring multitude. _Ros._ Sweet Lady, nay good sweet, now by my troth We'll be bedfellows: dirt on compliment froth![76] [_Exeunt_; ROSSALINE _giving_ ANTONIO _the way_. [52] Carbines. [53] Ed. 1633 "Heavens." [54] Old eds. "hurt." [55] Senec. _Thyestes_, 888. [56] "Christens it with policy" = dignifies it with the title of policy. [57] A term of contempt, like "carpet-knight," for an effeminate gallant "who never charged beyond a mistress' lips." [58] Pity. [59] The rowers' benches. [60] The famous Amazon, whose "valorous acts performed at Gaunt" (Ghent), circ. 1584, are celebrated in a fine old ballad. The name was commonly applied to any woman of spirit. [61] "Thy bright election's clear" = you are a woman of keen perception. [62] A favourite word with Marston. It is ridiculed by Ben Jonson in _The Poetaster_, v. 1:-- "What, shall thy lubrical and _glibbery_ muse Live, as she were defunct, like punk in stews?" [63] Old eds. "tiptoed." [64] It was a common form of abuse to compare a person to a may-pole. Hermia, railing at Helena, addresses her as "thou painted may-pole" (_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 2). [65] Accoutrements.--Elsewhere Marston has the original French form "accoustrements," which is also found in Spenser. [66] "_Close fight_ is an old sea-term. 'A ship's _close fights_ are small ledges of wood laid cross one another, like the grates of iron in a prison window, betwixt the main-mast and fore-mast, and are called gratings or nettings.' Smith's _Sea Grammar_, 1627."--_Halliwell._ [67] The form "Brittany," for "Britain," is not uncommon. Marlowe uses it in _Edward II._, ii. 2. l. 42; and I have restored it, _metri causa_, in the prologue to the _Jew of Malta_, l. 29. [68] Ed. 1633 "swounded." [69] Old eds. "_Ros._" [70] Thick, curdled. [71] Cleft, rifted. [72] Old eds. "unequal," which Dilke explains to mean "the partial and unjust representative"--an explanation which I wholly fail to understand. Later in the present play (p. 42, l. 309) we have "_unmatch'd mirrors_ of calamity." [73] Wilt. [74] Dilke quotes appositely from _Richard II._:-- "_Rich._ And, say, what store of parting tears were shed? _Aum._ 'Faith none by me: except _the north-east wind_, Which then blew bitterly against our faces, _Awak'd the sleepy rheum_; and so, by chance, Did grace our hollow parting with a tear." [75] "Our fashion is not curious," _i.e._, Amazons do not stand on ceremony. [76] Rossaline, seeing Antonio make way for her to pass, insists on giving him precedence. "No empty compliments! take the lead." ACT II. SCENE I. _Palace of the Duke of Venice._ _Enter_ CATZO, _with a capon eating_; DILDO _following him_. _Dil._ Hah, Catzo, your master wants a clean trencher: do you hear? Balurdo calls for your diminutive attendance. _Cat._ The belly hath no ears,[77] Dildo. _Dil._ Good pug,[78] give me some capon. _Cat._ No capon, no not a bit, ye smooth bully;[78] capon's no meat for Dildo: milk, milk, ye glibbery urchin, is food for infants. _Dil._ Upon mine honour. _Cat._ Your honour with a paugh! 'slid, now every jackanapes loads his back with the golden coat of honour; every ass puts on the lion's skin and roars his honour. Upon your honour? By my lady's pantable,[79] I fear I shall live to hear a vintner's boy cry, "'Tis rich neat canary." Upon my honour! 14 _Dil._ My stomach's up. _Cat._ I think thou art hungry. _Dil._ The match of fury is lighted, fastened to the linstock[80] of rage, and will presently set fire to the touch-hole of intemperance, discharging the double culverin of my incensement in the face of thy opprobrious speech. _Cat._ I'll stop the barrel thus: good Dildo, set not fire to the touch-hole. 22 _Dil._ My rage is stopp'd, and I will eat to the health of the fool, thy master Castilio. _Cat._ And I will suck the juice of the capon, to the health of the idiot, thy master Balurdo. _Dil._ Faith, our masters are like a case[81] of rapiers sheathed in one scabbard of folly. _Cat._ Right Dutch blades. But was't not rare sport at the sea-battle, whilst rounce robble hobble roared from the ship-sides, to view our masters pluck their plumes and drop their feathers, for fear of being men of mark. 32 _Dil._ 'Slud (cried Signior Balurdo), O for Don Rosicleer's[82] armour, in the _Mirror of Knighthood_! what coil's here? O for an armour, cannon-proof! O, more cable, more featherbeds![83] more featherbeds, more cable! till he had as much as my cable-hatband[84] to fence him. _Enter_ FLAVIA _in haste, with a rebato_.[85] _Cat._ Buxom Flavia, can you sing? song, song! _Fla._ My sweet Dildo, I am not for you at this time: Madam Rossaline stays for a fresh ruff to appear in the presence: sweet, away. 41 _Dil._ 'Twill not be so put off, delicate, delicious, spark-eyed, sleek-skinn'd, slender-waisted, clean-legg'd, rarely-shaped-- _Fla._ Who? I'll be at all your service another season: my faith, there's reason in all things. _Dil._ Would I were reason then, that I might be in all things. _Cat._ The breve and the semiquaver is, we must have the descant you made upon our names, ere you depart. _Fla._ Faith, the song will seem to come off hardly. 51 _Cat._ Troth not a wit, if you seem to come off quickly. _Fla._ Pert Catzo, knock[86] it lustily then. [_A song._ _Enter_ FOROBOSCO, _with two torches_: CASTILIO _singing fantastically_; ROSSALINE _running a coranto[87] pace, and_ BALURDO; FELICHE _following, wondering at them all_. _Foro._ Make place, gentlemen; pages, hold torches; the prince approacheth the presence. _Dil._ What squeaking cart-wheel have we here? ha! "Make place, gentlemen; pages, hold torches; the prince approacheth the presence." _Ros._ Faugh, what a strong scent's here! somebody useth to wear socks. 60 _Bal._ By this fair candle light, 'tis not my feet; I never wore socks since I sucked pap. _Ros._ Savourly put off. _Cast._ Hah, her wit stings, blisters, galls off the skin with the tart acrimony of her sharp quickness: by sweetness, she is the very Pallas that flew out of Jupiter's brainpan. Delicious creature, vouchsafe me your service: by the purity of bounty, I shall be proud of such bondage. _Ros._ I vouchsafe it; be my slave.--Signior Balurdo, wilt thou be my servant, too? 70 _Bal._ O God,[88] forsooth in very good earnest, law, you would make me as a man should say, as a man should say-- _Feli._ 'Slud, sweet beauty, will you deign him your service? _Ros._ O, your fool is your only servant. But, good Feliche, why art thou so sad? a penny for thy thought, man. _Feli._ I sell not my thought so cheap: I value my meditation at a higher rate. 80 _Bal._ In good sober sadness, sweet mistress, you should have had my thought for a penny: by this crimson satin that cost eleven shillings, thirteen pence, three pence halfpenny a yard, that you should, law! _Ros._ What was thy thought, good servant? _Bal._ Marry forsooth, how many strike of pease would feed a hog fat against Christtide. _Ros._ Paugh! [_she spits_] servant,[89] rub out my rheum, it soils the presence. _Cast._ By my wealthiest thought, you grace my shoe with an unmeasured honour: I will preserve the sole of it, as a most sacred relic for this service. 92 _Ros._ I'll spit in thy mouth, and thou wilt, to grace thee. _Feli._ [_Aside._] O that the stomach of this queasy age Digests, or brooks such raw unseasoned gobs, And vomits not them forth! O! slavish sots! Servant, quoth you? faugh! if a dog should crave And beg her service, he should have it straight: She'd give him favours too, to lick her feet, Or fetch her fan, or some such drudgery: 100 A good dog's office, which these amorists Triumph of: 'tis rare, well give her more ass, More sot, as long as dropping of her nose Is sworn rich pearl by such low slaves as those. _Ros._ Flavia, attend me to attire me. [_Exeunt_ ROSSALINE _and_ FLAVIA. _Bal._ In sad good earnest, sir, you have touched the very bare of naked truth; my silk stocking hath a good gloss, and I thank my planets, my leg is not altogether unpropitiously shaped. There's a word: unpropitiously? I think I shall speak unpropitiously as well as any courtier in Italy. 111 _Foro._ So help me your sweet bounty, you have the most graceful presence, applausive elecuty, amazing volubility, polish'd adornation, delicious affability. _Feli._ Whoop: fut, how he tickles yon trout under the gills! you shall see him take him by and by with groping flattery. _Foro._ That ever ravish'd the ear of wonder. By your sweet self, than whom I know not a more exquisite, illustrate, accomplished, pure, respected, adored, observed, precious, real,[90] magnanimous, bounteous--if you have an idle rich cast jerkin, or so, it shall not be cast away, if--ha! here's a forehead, an eye, a head, a hair, that would make a--: or if you have any spare pair of silver spurs, I'll do you as much right in all kind offices-- _Feli._ [_Aside._] Of a kind parasite. _Foro._ As any of my mean fortunes shall be able to. _Bal._ As I am true Christian now, thou hast won the spurs. _Feli._ [_Aside._] For flattery. 130 O how I hate that same Egyptian louse, A rotten maggot, that lives by stinking filth Of tainted spirits! vengeance to such dogs, That sprout by gnawing senseless carrion! _Enter_ ALBERTO. _Alb._ Gallants, saw you my mistress, the lady Rossaline? _Foro._ My mistress, the lady Rossaline, left the presence even now. _Cast._ My mistress, the lady Rossaline, withdrew her gracious aspect even now. _Bal._ My mistress, the lady Rossaline, withdrew her gracious aspect even now. 141 _Feli._ [_Aside._] Well said, echo. _Alb._ My mistress, and his mistress, and your mistress, and the dog's mistress. Precious dear heaven, that Alberto lives to have such rivals!-- 'Slid, I have been searching every private room, Corner, and secret angle of the court: And yet, and yet, and yet she lives conceal'd. Good sweet Feliche, tell me how to find My bright-faced mistress out. 150 _Feli._ Why man, cry out for lanthorn and candle-light:[91] for 'tis your only way, to find your bright-flaming wench with your light-burning torch: for most commonly, these light creatures live in darkness. _Alb._ Away, you heretic, you'll be burnt for---- _Feli._ Go, you amorous hound, follow the scent of your mistress' shoe; away! _Foro._ Make a fair presence; boys, advance your lights; the princess makes approach. _Bal._ And please the gods, now in very good deed, law, you shall see me tickle the measures for the heavens. Do my hangers[92] show? 162 _Enter_ PIERO, ANTONIO, MELLIDA, ROSSALINE, GALEATZO, MATZAGENTE, ALBERTO, _and_ FLAVIA. _As they enter_, FELICHE _and_ CASTILIO _make a rank for the_ DUKE _to pass through_. FOROBOSCO _ushers the_ DUKE _to his state_:[93] _then, whilst_ PIERO _speaketh his first speech,_ MELLIDA _is taken by_ GALEATZO _and_ MATZAGENTE _to dance, they supporting her_: ROSSALINE, _in like manner, by_ ALBERTO _and_ BALURDO: FLAVIA, _by_ FELICHE _and_ CASTILIO. _Pier._ Beauteous Amazon, sit and seat your thoughts In the reposure of most soft content. Sound music there! Nay, daughter, clear your eyes, From these dull fogs of misty discontent: Look sprightly, girl. What? though Antonio's drown'd,-- That peevish dotard on thy excellence, That hated issue of Andrugio,-- Yet may'st thou triumph in my victories; 170 Since, lo, the high-born bloods of Italy Sue for thy seat of love.--Let[94] music sound! Beauty and youth run descant on love's ground.[95] _Mat._ Lady, erect your gracious symmetry, Shine in the sphere of sweet affection: Your eye['s] as heavy, as the heart of night. _Mel._ My thoughts are as black as your beard; my fortunes as ill-proportioned as your legs; and all the powers of my mind as leaden as your wit, and as dusty as your face is swarthy. 180 _Gal._ Faith, sweet, I'll lay thee on the lips for that jest. _Mel._ I prithee intrude not on a dead man's right. _Gal._ No, but the living's just possession: Thy lips and love are mine. _Mel._ You ne'er took seizin on them yet: forbear. There's not a vacant corner of my heart, But all is fill'd with dead Antonio's loss. Then urge no more; O leave to love at all; 'Tis less disgraceful not to mount than fall. _Mat._ Bright and refulgent lady, deign your ear: 190 You see this blade,--had it a courtly lip, It would divulge my valour, plead my love, Justle that skipping feeble amorist Out of your love's seat; I am Matzagent. _Gal._ Hark thee; I pray thee, taint not thy sweet ear With that sot's gabble; by thy beauteous cheek, He is the flagging'st bulrush that e'er droop'd With each slight mist of rain. But with pleased eye Smile on my courtship. _Mel._ What said you, sir? alas my thought was fix'd 200 Upon another object. Good, forbear: I shall but weep. Ay me, what boots a tear! Come, come, let's dance. O music, thou distill'st More sweetness in us than this jarring world: Both time and measure from thy strains do breathe, Whilst from the channel of this dirt doth flow Nothing but timeless grief, unmeasured woe. _Ant._ O how impatience cramps my cracked veins And cruddles thick my blood, with boiling rage! O eyes, why leap you not like thunderbolts, 210 Or cannon bullets in my rival's face! _Ohime infeliche misero, O lamentevol fato!_ _Alb._ What means the lady fall upon the ground? _Ros._ Belike the falling sickness. _Ant._ I cannot brook this sight, my thoughts grow wild: Here lies a wretch, on whom heaven never smiled. _Ros._ What, servant, ne'er a word, and I here man? I would shoot some speech forth, to strike the time With pleasing touch of amorous compliment. Say, sweet, what keeps thy mind, what think'st thou on? 220 _Alb._ Nothing. _Ros._ What's that nothing? _Alb._ A woman's constancy. _Ros._ Good, why, would'st thou have us sluts, and never shift The vesture of our thoughts? Away for shame. _Alb._ O no, th'art too constant to afflict my heart, Too too firm fixed in unmoved scorn. _Ros._ Pish, pish; I fixed in unmoved scorn! Why, I'll love thee to-night. _Alb._ But whom to-morrow? _Ros._ Faith, as the toy puts me in the head. _Bal._ And pleased the marble heavens, now would I might be the toy, to put you in the head, kindly to conceit my--my--my--pray you, give in an epithet for love. _Feli._ Roaring, roaring. 232 _Bal._[96] O love, thou hast murder'd me, made me a shadow, and you hear not Balurdo, but Balurdo's ghost. _Ros._ Can a ghost speak? _Bal._ Scurvily, as I do. _Ros._ And walk? _Bal._ After their fashion. _Ros._ And eat apples? _Bal._ In a sort, in their garb. 240 _Feli._ Prithee, Flavia, be my mistress. _Fla._ Your reason, good Feliche? _Feli._ Faith, I have nineteen mistresses already, and I not much disdain that thou should'st make up the full score. _Fla._ O, I hear you make commonplaces of your mistresses to perform the office of memory by. Pray you, in ancient times were not those satin hose? In good faith, now they are new dyed, pink'd, and scoured, they show as well as if they were new. What, mute, Balurdo? 250 _Feli._ Ay, in faith, and 'twere not for printing, and painting, my breech and your face would be out of reparation.[97] _Bal._ Ay, in[98] faith, and 'twere not for printing, and painting,[99] my breech and your face would be out of reparation. _Feli._ Good again, Echo. _Fla._ Thou art, by nature, too foul to be affected. _Feli._ And thou, by art, too fair to be beloved. By wit's life, most spark spirits, but hard chance. _La ty dine._ 261 _Pier._ Gallants, the night grows old; and downy sleep Courts us to entertain his company: Our tired limbs, bruis'd in the morning fight, Entreat soft rest, and gentle hush'd repose. Fill out Greek wines; prepare fresh cressit-light:[100] We'll have a banquet: Princes, then good-night. [_The cornets sound a senet, and the_ DUKE _goes out in state_. _As they are going out_, ANTONIO _stays_ MELLIDA: _the rest exeunt_. _Ant._ What means these scatter'd looks? why tremble you? Why quake your thoughts in your distracted eyes? Collect your spirits, Madam; what do you see? 270 Dost not behold a ghost? Look, look where he stalks, wrapt up in clouds of grief, Darting his soul upon thy wond'ring eyes. Look, he comes towards thee; see, he stretcheth out His wretched arms to gird thy loved waist, With a most wish'd embrace: see'st him not yet? Nor yet? Ha, Mellida; thou well may'st err: For look, he walks not like Antonio: Like that Antonio, that this morning shone In glistering habiliments of arms, 280 To seize his love, spite of her father's spite: But like himself, wretched, and miserable, Banish'd, forlorn, despairing, strook quite through, With sinking grief, rolled up in sevenfold doubles Of plagues [un]vanquishable: hark, he speaks to thee. _Mel._ Alas, I cannot hear, nor see him. _Ant._ Why? all this night about the room he stalk'd, And groan'd, and howl'd, with raging passion, To view his love (life-blood of all his hopes, Crown of his fortune) clipp'd by strangers' arms. 290 Look but behind thee. _Mel._ O Antonio! My lord, my love, my---- _Ant._ Leave passion, sweet; for time, place, air, and earth, Are all our foes: fear, and be jealous; fair, Let's fly. _Mel._ Dear heart, ha, whither? _Ant._ O, 'tis no matter whither, but let's fly. Ha! now I think on't, I have ne'er a home, No father, friend, or country to embrace These wretched limbs: the world, the all that is, 300 Is all my foe: a prince not worth a doit: Only my head is hoised to high rate, Worth twenty thousand double pistolets, To him that can but strike it from these shoulders. But come, sweet creature, thou shalt be my home; My father, country, riches, and my friend, My all, my soul; and thou and I will live,-- Let's think like what--and you and I will live Like unmatch'd mirrors of calamity. The jealous ear of night eave-drops our talk. 310 Hold thee, there's a jewel; and look thee, there's a note That will direct thee when, where, how to fly. Bid me adieu. _Mel._ Farewell, bleak misery! _Ant._ Stay, sweet, let's kiss before you go! _Mel._ Farewell, dear soul! _Ant._ Farewell, my life, my heart! [_Exeunt._ [77] A proverbial expression: gaster otas ouk echei. [78] A familiar form of address. [79] Slipper. [80] The stick which held the gunner's match. [81] "Case of rapiers"--pair of rapiers. [82] All the editions give "Bessicler's;" but this is evidently a misprint. Rosicleer was the brother of the Knight of the Sun, and he figures prominently in the group of romances published under the _Mirror of Knighthood_ (7 pts., 1583-1601). He had an excellent suit of armour, which proved very serviceable in his combats with giants. [83] Dilke, in 1814, says that featherbeds were still used to protect the men from the fire of the enemy. As to the use of cables I refer the reader to Sir William Monson's _Naval Tracts_ (_Collection of Voyages and Travels_, 1704, iii. 358), where in the directions "How to preserve the men in fighting" it is stated:--"I prefer the coiling of cables on the deck, and keeping part of the men within them...; for the soldiers are in and out speedily upon all sudden occasions to succour any part of the ship, or to enter an enemy, without trouble to the sailors in handling their sails or to the gunners in playing their ordnance." [84] A twisted band worn round the hat. In _Every Man out of his Humour_ (1599), the "cable-hatband" is mentioned as a novelty of the latest fashion:--"I had on a gold cable hat-band _then new come up_." [85] Ruff, falling-band. [86] "So in _King Henry VIII._:-- 'Let the music knock it.'"--_Dilke._ [87] A quick lively dance. [88] "The exclamation was too fashionable in the time of Marston for those who had nothing else to say; and is ridiculed by Ben Jonson in the character of Orange in _Every Man out of his Humour_, as 'O Lord, sir,' is by Shakespeare in _All's Well that Ends Well_. Orange is thus described:--''Tis as dry an Orange as ever grew: nothing but salutation; and, O God, sir; and, it please you to say so, sir.'"--_Dilke._ [89] Lover, suitor. [90] Regal, noble.--In the address "To those that seem judicial observers" prefixed to the _Scourge of Villainy_, Marston ridicules Ben Jonson (under the name of Torquatus) for introducing "new-minted epithets, as _real_, intrinsecate, Delphic." [91] "Lanthorn and candle-light"--the bellman's cry. [92] Loops or straps (fastened to the girdle) in which the rapier was suspended. [93] Throne, chair of dignity. [94] "Let music sound!" is printed as a stage-direction in the old copies. [95] Musical term for an air on which variations or divisions were to be made. [96] The words "O love ... Balurdo's ghost" are given to Feliche in old eds. [97] There is the same joke in the _Merry Jests of George Peele_, 1627:--"George used often to an ordinary in this town, where a kinswoman of the good wife's in the house held a great pride and vain opinion of her own mother-wit; for her tongue was a jack continually wagging.... Now this titmouse, what she scanted by nature, she doth replenish by art, as her boxes of red and white daily can testify. But to come to George, who arrived at the ordinary among other gallants, throws his cloak upon the table, salutes the gentlemen, and presently calls for a cup of canary. George had a pair of hose on, that for some offence durst not to be seen in that hue they were first dyed in, but from his first colour being a youthful green, his long age turned him into a mournful black, and for his antiquity was in print. Which this busybody perceiving, thought now to give it him to the quick; and drawing near Master Peele, looking upon his breeches, 'By my troth, sir,' quoth she, 'these are exceedingly well printed.' At which word, George, being a little moved in his mind that his old hose were called in question, answered, 'And by my faith, mistress,' quoth George, 'your face is most damnably ill painted.' 'How mean you, sir?' quoth she. 'Marry thus, mistress,' quoth George, 'that if it were not for printing and painting, my arse and your face would grow out of reparations.'" [98] Old eds. "an." [99] Ed. 1602, "pointing." [100] See Dyce's _Shakesp. Gloss., s._ CRESSETS. ACT III. SCENE I. _The sea-shore._ _Enter_ ANDRUGIO _in armour_, LUCIO _with a shepherd's gown in his hand, and a Page_. _And._ Is not yon gleam the shuddering morn that flakes With silver tincture the east verge of heaven? _Lu._ I think it is, so please your excellence. _And._ Away! I have no excellence to please. Prithee observe the custom of the world, That only flatters greatness, states exalts. And please my excellence! O Lucio, Thou hast been ever held respected dear, Even precious to Andrugio's inmost love. Good, flatter not. Nay, if thou giv'st not faith 10 That I am wretched, O read that, read that. PIERO SFORZA _to the_ Italian Princes, _fortune_. _Lu._ [reads] _EXCELLENT, the just overthrow_ ANDRUGIO _took in the Venetian gulf, hath so assured the Genoways of the [in]justice of his cause, and the hatefulness of his person, that they have banish'd him and all his family: and, for confirmation of their peace with us, have vowed, that if he or his son can be attached, to send us both their heads. We therefore, by force of our united league, forbid you to harbour him, or his blood: but if you apprehend his person, we entreat you to send him, or his head, to us. For we vow, by the honour of our blood, to recompense any man that bringeth his head, with twenty thousand double pistolets, and the endearing of our choicest love. From_ Venice: PIERO SFORZA. 24 _And._ My thoughts are fix'd in contemplation Why this huge earth, this monstrous animal, That eats her children, should not have eyes and ears. Philosophy maintains that Nature's wise, And forms no useless or unperfect thing. Did Nature make the earth, or the earth Nature? 30 For earthly dirt makes all things, makes the man, Moulds me up honour; and, like a cunning Dutchman, Paints me a puppet even with seeming breath, And gives a sot appearance of a soul. Go to, go to; thou liest, Philosophy. Nature forms things unperfect, useless, vain. Why made she not the earth with eyes and ears That she might see desert, and hear men's plaints? That when a soul is splitted, sunk with grief, He might fall thus, upon the breast of earth, 40 [_He throws himself on the ground._ Exclaiming thus: O thou all-bearing earth, Which men do gape for, till thou cramm'st their mouths, And chokest their throats with dust; O chaune[101] thy breast, And let me sink into thee! Look who knocks; Andrugio calls.--But O, she's deaf and blind: A wretch but lean relief on earth can find. _Lu._ Sweet lord, abandon passion, and disarm. Since by the fortune of the tumbling sea, We are roll'd up upon the Venice marsh, Let's clip all fortune, lest more low'ring fate-- 50 _And._ More low'ring fate! O Lucio, choke that breath. Now I defy chance: Fortune's brow hath frown'd, Even to the utmost wrinkle it can bend: Her venom's spit. Alas, what country rests, What son, what comfort that she can deprive? Triumphs not Venice in my overthrow? Gapes not my native country for my blood? Lies not my son tomb'd in the swelling main? And yet more low'ring fate! There's nothing left Unto Andrugio, but Andrugio: 60 And that nor mischief, force, distress, nor hell can take. Fortune my fortunes, not my mind, shall shake. _Lu._ Spoke[102] like yourself; but give me leave, my Lord, To wish your safety. If you are but seen, Your arms display you; therefore put them off, And take----. _And._ Would'st thou have me go unarm'd among my foes? Being besieg'd by passion, ent'ring lists, To combat with despair and mighty grief; My soul beleaguer'd with the crushing strength 70 Of sharp impatience? ha, Lucio, go unarm'd? Come soul, resume the valour of thy birth; Myself, myself will dare all opposites:[103] I'll muster forces, an unvanquish'd power: Cornets of horse shall press th' ungrateful earth; This hollow wombed mass shall inly groan, And murmur to sustain the weight of arms: Ghastly amazement, with upstarted hair, Shall hurry on before, and usher us, Whilst trumpets clamour with a sound of death. 80 _Lu._ Peace, good my Lord, your speech is all too light. Alas, survey your fortunes, look what's left Of all your forces, and your utmost hopes: A weak old man, a page, and your poor self. _And._ Andrugio lives, and a fair cause of arms,-- Why that's an army all invincible! He who hath that, hath a battalion royal, Armour of proof, huge troops of barbed steeds, Main squares of pikes, millions of harquebush. O, a fair cause stands firm, and will abide; 90 Legions of angels fight upon her side.[104] _Lu._ Then, noble spirit, slide, in strange disguise, Unto some gracious Prince, and sojourn there, Till time and fortune give revenge firm means. _And._ No, I'll not trust the honour of a man. Gold is grown great, and makes perfidiousness A common waiter in most princes' courts: He's in the check-roll;[105] I'll not trust my blood; I know none breathing but will cog a die[106] For twenty thousand double pistolets. 100 How goes the time? _Lu._ I saw no sun to-day.[107] _And._ No sun will shine, where poor Andrugio breathes. My soul grows heavy: boy, let's have a song: We'll sing yet, faith, even in[108] despite of fate. [_A song._ _And._ 'Tis a good boy, and by my troth, well sung. O, and thou felt'st my grief, I warrant thee, Thou would'st have strook division[109] to the height, And made the life of music breathe: hold, boy; why so. For God's sake call me not Andrugio, That I may soon forget what I have been. 110 For heaven's name, name not Antonio, That I may not remember he was mine. Well, ere yon sun set, I'll show myself, Worthy my blood. I was a Duke; that's all. No[110] matter whither, but from whence we fall.[111] [_Exeunt._ [101] Open (Gr. chaino, chauno). Cotgrave gives:--"To _chawne_,--se fendre, gercer, crevasser, crever, se jarcer." [102] Old eds. "Speake" (and "Speak"). [103] "'The king enacts more wonders than a man, Daring an opposite to every danger.' _Richard III._"--_Dilke._ [104] Cf. _Richard III._ (v. 3):-- "God and good angels fight on Richmond's side." [105] Old eds. "Chekle-roule." [106] "Cog a die" = load a die. [107] Dilke compares _Richard III._ (v. 3):-- "Who saw the sun to-day? _Rat._ Not I, my lord. _Rich._ Then he disdains to shine." [108] Omitted in ed. 1. [109] Variations in music. [110] The sentiment is from Seneca's _Thyestes_, l. 925:-- "Magis unde cadas Quam quo refert." [111] "The situation of Andrugio and Lucio resembles that of Lear and Kent, in that King's distresses. Andrugio, like Lear, manifests a kind of royal impatience, a turbulent greatness, an affected resignation. The enemies which he enters lists to combat, 'Despair, and mighty Grief, and sharp Impatience;' and the Forces ('Cornets of Horse,' &c.) which he brings to vanquish them, are in the boldest style of allegory. They are such a 'race of mourners' as 'the infection of sorrows loud' in the intellect might beget on 'some pregnant cloud' in the imagination."--_Charles Lamb._ SCENE II. _Palace of the Duke of Venice._ _Enter_ FELICHE _walking, unbraced_. _Feli._ Castilio, Alberto, Balurdo! none up? Forobosco! Flattery, nor thou up yet? Then there's no courtier stirring: that's firm truth? I cannot sleep: Feliche seldom rests In these court lodgings. I have walk'd all night, To see if the nocturnal court delights Could force me envy their felicity: And by plain troth, I will confess plain troth, I envy nothing but the travense[112] light. O, had it eyes, and ears, and tongues, it might 10 See sport, hear speech of most strange surquedries.[113] O, if that candle-light were made a poet, He would prove a rare firking satirist, And draw the core forth of imposthum'd sin. Well, I thank heaven yet, that my content Can envy nothing, but poor candle-light. As for the other glistering copper spangs, That glisten in the tire of the court, Praise God, I either hate, or pity them. Well, here I'll sleep till that the scene of up 20 Is pass'd at court. O calm hush'd rich Content, Is there a being blessedness without thee? How soft thou down'st the couch where thou dost rest, Nectar to life, thou sweet Ambrosian feast! _Enter_ CASTILIO _and his Page_ CATZO: CASTILIO _with a casting-bottle_[114] _of sweet water in his hand, sprinkling himself_. _Cast._ Am not I a most sweet youth now? _Cat._ Yes, when your throat's perfum'd; your very words Do smell of ambergris. O stay, sir, stay; Sprinkle some sweet water to your shoe's heels, That your mistress may swear you have a sweet foot. _Cast._ Good, very good, very passing[115] passing good. 30 _Feli._ Fut, what treble minikin[116] squeaks there, ha? "good, very good, very very good!" _Cast._ I will warble to the delicious conclave of my mistress' ear: and strike her thoughts with the pleasing touch of my voice. [_A song._ _Cast._ Feliche, health, fortune, mirth, and wine. _Feli._ To thee, my love divine. _Cast._ I drink to thee, sweeting. _Feli._ [_Aside._] Plague on thee for an ass! _Cast._ Now thou hast seen the court, by the perfection of it, dost not envy it? 41 _Feli._ I wonder it doth not envy me. Why, man, I have been borne upon the spirit's wings, The soul's swift Pegasus, the fantasy: And from the height of contemplation, Have view'd the feeble joints men totter on. I envy none; but hate, or pity all. For when I view, with an intentive thought, That creature fair but proud; him rich, but sot; Th' other witty, but unmeasured arrogant; 50 Him great, yet boundless in ambition; Him high-born, but of base life; t' other fear'd, Yet feared fears, and fears most to be loved;[117] Him wise, but made a fool for public use; The other learned, but self-opinionate: When I discourse all these, and see myself Nor fair, nor rich, nor witty, great, nor fear'd, Yet amply suited with all full content, Lord, how I clap my hands, and smooth my brow, Rubbing my quiet bosom, tossing up 60 A grateful spirit to Omnipotence! _Cast._ Hah, hah! but if thou knew'st my happiness, Thou would'st even grate away thy soul to dust, In envy of my sweet beatitude. I cannot sleep for kisses; I cannot rest For ladies' letters, that importune me With such unused vehemence of love, Straight to solicit them, that----. _Feli._ Confusion seize me, but I think thou liest. Why should I not be sought to then as well? 70 Fut, methinks I am as like a man. Troth, I have a good head of hair, a cheek Not as yet wan'd, a leg, 'faith, in the full. I ha' not a red beard, take not tobacco much: And 'slid, for other parts of manliness-- _Cast._ Pew waw, you ne'er accourted[118] them in pomp, Put your good parts in presence graciously. Ha, and you had, why, they would ha' come off, Sprung to your arms, and sued, and prayed, and vowed, And opened all their sweetness to your love. 80 _Feli._ There are a number of such things as thou[119] Have often urged me to such loose belief; But, 'slid, you all do lie, you all do lie. I have put on good clothes, and smugg'd my face, Strook a fair wench with a smart, speaking eye; Courted in all sorts, blunt and passionate; Had opportunity, put them to the ah! And, by this light, I find them wondrous chaste, Impregnable; perchance a kiss, or so: But for the rest, O most inexorable! 90 _Cast._ Nay then, i'faith, prithee look here. [_Shows him the superscription of a seeming letter._ _Feli. To her most esteemed, loved, and generous servant, Sig. Castilio Balthazar._ Prithee from whom comes this? faith, I must see. _From her that is devoted to thee, in most private sweets of love, Rossaline._ Nay, God's my comfort, I must see the rest; I must, sans ceremony; faith, I must. [FELICHE _takes away the letter by force_. _Cast._ O, you spoil my ruff, unset my hair; good, away! 100 _Feli. Item, for strait canvass, thirteen pence halfpenny; item, for an ell and a half of taffeta to cover your old canvass doublet, fourteen shillings and threepence._--'Slight, this is a tailor's bill. _Cast._ In sooth, it is the outside of her letter, on which I took the copy of a tailor's bill. _Dil._ But 'tis not cross'd, I am sure of that. Lord have mercy on him, his credit hath given up the last gasp. Faith, I'll leave him; for he looks as melancholy as a wench the first night she---- [_Exit._ 110 _Feli._ Honest musk-cod, 'twill not be so stitched together; take that [_striking him_], and that, and belie no lady's love: swear no more by Jesu, this madam, that lady; hence, go, forswear the presence, travel three years to bury this bastinado: avoid, puff-paste, avoid! _Cast._ And tell not my lady-mother. Well, as I am a true gentleman, if she had not willed me on her blessing not to spoil my face, if I could not find in my heart to fight, would I might ne'er eat a potato-pie more. [_Exit._ _Enter_ BALURDO, _backward_; DILDO _following him with a looking-glass in one hand, and a candle in the other hand_: FLAVIA _following him backward, with a looking-glass in one hand, and a candle in the other_; ROSSALINE _following her_; BALURDO _and_ ROSSALINE _stand setting of faces; and so the Scene begins_. _Feli._ More fool, more rare fools! O, for time and place, long enough, and large enough, to act these fools! Here might be made a rare scene of folly, if the plat[120] could bear it. 123 _Bal._ By the sugar-candy sky, hold up the glass higher, that I may see to swear in fashion. O, one loof[121] more would ha' made them shine; God's neaks,[122] they would have shone like my mistress' brow. Even so the Duke frowns, for all this curson'd[123] world: O, that gern[124] kills, it kills. By my golden--what's the richest thing about me? 130 _Dil._ Your teeth. _Bal._ By my golden teeth, hold up, that I may put in: hold up, I say, that I may see to put on my gloves. _Dil._ O, delicious, sweet-cheek'd master, if you discharge but one glance from the level of that set face, O, you will strike a wench; you'll make any wench love you. _Bal._ By Jesu, I think I am as elegant a courtier as----. How likest thou my suit? _Cat._ All, beyond all, no peregal:[125] you are wondered at--[_Aside._] for an ass. 141 _Bal._ Well, Dildo, no Christen creature shall know hereafter, what I will do for thee heretofore. _Ros._ Here wants a little white, Flavia. _Dil._ Ay, but, master, you have one little fault; you sleep open-mouth'd. _Bal._ Pew, thou jest'st. In good sadness, I'll have a looking-glass nail'd to the testern of the bed, that I may see when I sleep whether 'tis so or not; take heed you lie not: go to, take heed you lie not. 150 _Fla._ By my troth, you look as like the princess, now--Ay--but her lip is--lip is--a little----redder, a very little redder. _Ros._[126] But by the help of art or nature, ere I change my periwig, mine shall be as red. _Fla._[127] O ay, that face, that eye, that smile, that writhing of your body, that wanton dandling of your fan, becomes prethely, so sweethly, 'tis even the goodest lady that breathes, the most amiable----. Faith, the fringe of your satin petticoat is ript. Good faith, madam, they say you are the most bounteous lady to your women that ever----O most delicious beauty! Good madam, let me kith it. _Feli._ Rare sport, rare sport! A female fool, and a female flatterer. 164 _Ros._ Body o' me, the Duke! away[128] the glass! _Enter_ PIERO. _Pier._ Take up your paper, Rossaline. _Ros._ Not mine, my Lord. _Pier._ Not yours, my Lady? I'll see what 'tis. _Bal._ And how does my sweet mistress? O Lady dear, even as 'tis an old say, "'tis an old horse can neither wighy,[129] nor wag his tail:" even so do I hold my set face still: even so, 'tis a bad courtier that can neither discourse, nor blow his nose. 173 _Pier._--[_reads._] _Meet me at Abraham's, the Jew's, where I bought my Amazon's disguise. A ship lies in the port, ready bound for England; make haste, come private._ ANTONIO. _Enter_ CASTILIO _and_ FOROBOSCO. Forobosco, Alberto, Feliche, Castilio, Balurdo! run, keep the palace, post to the ports, go to my daughter's chamber! whither now? scud to the Jew's! stay, run to the gates, stop the gundolets,[130] let none pass the marsh! do all at once! Antonio! his head, his head! Keep you the court, the rest stand still, or run, or go, or shout, or search, or scud, or call, or hang, or do-do-do su-su-su something! I know not who-who-who what I do-do-do, nor who-who-who, where I am. 185 _O trista traditrice, rea ribalda fortuna, Negando mi vindetta mi causa fera morte._ [_Exeunt all but_ FELICHE. _Feli._ Ha ha ha! I could break my spleen at his impatience. _Enter_ ANTONIO _and_ MELLIDA. _Ant. Alma et graziosa fortuna siate favorevole, Et fortunati siano voti del_[_la_] _mia dolce Mellida, Mellida._ _Mel._ Alas, Antonio, I have lost thy note! A number mount my stairs; I'll straight return. [_Exit._ _Feli._ Antonio, 194 Be not affright, sweet Prince; appease thy fear, Buckle thy spirits up, put all thy wits In wimble[131] action, or thou art surprised. _Ant._ I care not. _Feli.